Topic: Gaza Strip

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Obama-Netanyahu tensions: Not as bad as 5 other US-Israel low points

Will US-Israel relations fray over Iran? Not likely – they've seen worse.

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Olive Press Arab Idol's victory lap brings rare euphoria to West Bank

A sea of exuberant fans greeted Palestinian singer Mohammed Assaf in Ramallah last night as he kicked off a victory tour in the West Bank after winning the Arab Idol singing contest.
Opinion The two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians needs a big boost

Those on the extremes of the Palestinian and Israeli conflict don’t see a two-state solution as viable – or preferable. Secretary of State John Kerry and those in the center with practical ideas about how to achieve two peaceful states must strengthen their voices.
Olive Press In hi-tech, Gaza Sky Geeks sees way to break through isolation

Gaza Sky Geeks aims to harness an entrepreneurial streak among Gaza's isolated youths. The company already has investment from Google to help start-ups grow.
Change Agent Gaza Sky Geeks backs tech startups in the Gaza Strip

The conflict-torn Gaza Strip produces more than 2,000 young graduates with technical degrees each year. Gaza Sky Geeks helps them launch their own high-tech businesses.
Olive Press On Gaza's border, an unexpected haven for mentally-handicapped Israelis

A factory in Sderot provides mentally-disabled people in Israel with work and a social environment where they can feel accepted.
Olive Press Gazans struggle to reel in a livelihood

One man alone used to employ more than 2,000 fishermen to bring in Gaza's daily catch, but Israel has reduced the areas in which Palestinians may fish, curbing the number of accessible fish.
In Syria, terrorist designation means more go hungry

The presence of an Al Qaeda-linked group among Syria's rebels and past US prosecutions of those who've supported groups it deems terrorists has slowed the flow of food and medical aid to Syria.
Briefing: Palestinian factions agree to reconcile

Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian factions, have put a three-month deadline on efforts to mend their long-standing differences.
KFC smugglers bring buckets of chicken through Gaza tunnels

Gazans with a hankering for the Colonel's secret recipe can call up a delivery company and get some finger lickin' food smuggled hot from Egypt in just three hours.
Olive Press Fashionable – and thrifty – amid fire in southern Israel

Liat Azran had two goals when she opened a hip secondhand clothing store in Sderot, which bears the brunt of rocket fire from Gaza: helping heal the town and encouraging sound financial judgement.
Focus 'Provoking peace' in Indonesia

Christians and Muslims in Ambon, Indonesia, have relearned how to live together after a 1999 - 2002 war killed 5,000 people and displaced half a million.
Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas

The coinciding visits to Beijing of the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian Authority president this week speak to China's growing interests in the Middle East.
With air strike on Gaza, Israel tells Hamas 'get it together'

Israel's deadly strike today was a warning to Hamas to rein in more extreme militants, like the Salafist group that is firing rockets into Israel. Hamas is already on it.
Kerry makes headway with Middle East peace, but violence flares

Secretary of State John Kerry got an important boost yesterday when the Arab League agreed to soften the terms of their Middle East peace proposal.
Olive Press Israeli first responder searches for the good among Sderot's rocket-pocked streets

One would expect Israeli Judith Bar-Hay to be angry after working for years in Sderot, which has been hit with more than 7,000 Palestinian rockets. She says that helping others keeps her sane.
Cover Story Boston bombing reveals a new American maturity toward insecurity

The post-9/11 'new normal' has evolved: The tactical and emotional responses to the Boston Marathon bombings show what experts call a national maturity toward terrorism that echoes longer experience with such crises in England, Spain, Russia, Japan, and Israel.
Hagel goes to Israel bearing gifts of radar and Ospreys

The US will give Israel advanced radar systems, more powerful missiles, and aircraft never before sold outside the US. Together, they could diminish Israel's sense of threat from Iran.
First West Bank marathon highlights barriers to Palestinian movement

Marathoners observed a moment of silence for the victims in the Boston attacks before running a landscape scarred by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In Middle East Kerry pushes for Turkey-Israel rapprochement

Secretary of State John Kerry is in the Middle East exploring options for renewed peace efforts. On Sunday, he urged Turkey and Israel to normalize relations, which broke down after Turks were killed in an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010.
Olive Press Former Palestinian prisoners once jailed for murder, now dole out dessert

The two men behind one of Gaza's most famous kenafeh shops spent more than decade in Israeli prison for conspiracy to murder and planting bombs.
Terrorism & Security Rockets fired from Egypt slam into Israeli resort town

An Islamist militant group claimed responsibility, citing retaliation for the Israeli attack on Palestinians protesting the death of an inmate in an Israeli prison.
Olive Press Hebrew lives on in Hamas-run Gaza

Palestinian Daniel Fares, fluent in Hebrew from his days working in an Israeli Coca-Cola factory, still tunes in to Israeli news stations daily.
US loses a West Bank darling with resignation of Palestinian prime minister

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who resigned this weekend, was liked by the US, but he had less approval at home, where many saw him as a lackey of the West.
Why Kerry could succeed at securing Israeli-Palestinian peace

Despite deep-seated cynicism about prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace, Secretary of State John Kerry has kicked off his term with the biggest American push for an agreement since 2000.
Olive Press In Gaza, a dream of sailboats meets land's limited horizons

Mahfouz Kabariti spent years trying to round up a fleet of sailboats for Gaza's children as a distraction from their violent life. The boats arrived, but remain beached in his yard.