The Israeli Supreme Court today ordered the government to reroute the best known section of its West Bank separation barrier, dealing a symbolic defeat to the state after a 2 1/2-year legal battle that has turned Bilin into a flashpoint of opposition to the contentious structure.

Israeli defence minister Amir Peretz today said a dormant Saudi initiative for Mideast peace could be a “basis for negotiations,” indicating a new basis for talks with the Palestinians after years of stalemate.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency today said it is adding 100,000 Gaza residents, mostly government employees and their families, to its food distribution programme to meet an increasingly desperate situation there.

Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators gathered in Geneva today to launch their unofficial initiative to end one of the world’s most intractable conflicts in the presence of Jimmy Carter and other winners of the Nobel peace prize.