While Dr Kevin McCarthy’s previous predictions on the outcome of the recent Israeli election were way off the mark, he’s on safer ground when he quotes (Irish Examiner, Letters, March 31) from the excellent survey of attitudes in Gaza, which was carried out by the reliable Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research. 

The Israeli PM’s claim that his country won a “great military and political” victory over Hamas in the latest round of fighting in the Gaza Strip has met with scepticism from many of his people, according to a poll.

Hebron style is clad in full battle gear, it seems.

Israel is to pay university students to post supportive messages on social media networks without identifying their government backing.

Irishwoman Samantha Power faces strident opposition from elements of the Israeli lobby to be confirmed as the US ambassador to the UN.

Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised for re-election as Israel’s Prime Minister because of the failure of his opponents to unite behind a viable candidate against him .

Israel’s approval of 3,000 new homes on occupied territory has drawn sharp condemnation from European allies with at least three governments summoning ambassadors over an action they say undermines an already troubled peace process.

Israel bombed dozens of targets in Gaza and said that while it was prepared to step up its offensive by sending in troops, it preferred a diplomatic solution that would end rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave.

Israel and Hamas continued to bombard each other today as attempts began to broker a cease-fire after six days of death and destruction.

Israel has cleared out most staff from its embassy in the Jordanian capital Amman ahead of an anti-Israel protest, reports said today.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son has posted disparaging comments about Arabs and Muslims on his Facebook page.

PALESTINIAN president Mahmoud Abbas described as “abominable” a weekend stabbing attack which killed five Israelis, including a baby, in their beds in a West Bank settlement.

Veteran Israeli journalist Dov Yudkovsky, who survived the Holocaust and later became editor of Israel’s best-selling newspaper, has died aged 89.

WASHINGTON’S envoy to Iraq has condemned WikiLeaks as “absolutely awful” as world capitals braced for the looming release of three million sensitive diplomatic cables by the whistleblower website.

Israel’s military has condemned the publication of the names and photographs of 200 Israeli soldiers by a website that calls the troops “war criminals”.

Israel will significantly ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip today, officials said, in an effort to blunt widespread international criticism after a deadly Israeli commando raid on a blockade-busting flotilla.

Israel lifted months of censorship on a military espionage case today confirming the arrest of a former woman soldier charged with leaking more than 2,000 military documents to a newspaper.

Palestinians and Israeli police have clashed near the Jerusalem compound housing the al-Aqsa mosque, leaving dozens of people injured.

A top Hamas leader publicly disowned his son, days after the young man announced he had secretly spied for Israel and helped authorities hunt down members of the Islamic militant group.

The son of one of the founders of the Hamas militant group was exposed today as a top Israeli informant who helped prevent dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks.

Foreign Affairs minister Micheál Martin has said the three Irish passports used by a group of operatives who allegedly assassinated a Hamas commander in Dubai had valid numbers, reversing his department's position of a day earlier.

THE Israeli military said yesterday it has reprimanded two high-ranking officers for approving the firing of artillery shells toward a UN compound during the Gaza Strip war last year – the first admission of any high-level wrongdoing during the offensive.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to swap territory near the Gaza Strip and West Bank in exchange for settlement blocs in the West Bank, the Haaretz newspaper claimed today.

Israel’s foreign minister ran into controversy on the first day of a Latin American trip when an official of Brazil’s ruling party reportedly called him a “fascist”.

Five Hamas militants, including two commanders involved in rocket attacks, were killed today when an Israeli aircraft blew up a minivan in southern Gaza.

YOUR editorial (‘Aggression will not end this insanity’, January 22) ignores the fundamental issues that led to the current situation in Gaza.

A SYRIAN site bombed by Israel in September was probably a plant for assembling a nuclear bomb, an Israeli nuclear expert said yesterday, challenging other analysts’ conclusions that it housed a North Korean-style nuclear reactor.

Gunmen planned to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when he went to the West Bank in August to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a security chief reportedly told Israel’s Cabinet today.

PALESTINIAN Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert was never seriously threatened by an assassination plot and promised to do his best to rein in West Bank militants.

Gunmen planned to assassinate Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when he went to the West Bank in August to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a security chief reportedly told Israel’s Cabinet today.

The Israeli and Palestinian leaders today tackled the core issues that have tormented would-be Mideast peacemakers for decades – Palestinian refugees, final borders and the fate of Jerusalem.

HAMAS militants have smuggled 40 tons of weapons into the Gaza Strip since the group wrested control of the territory in June, sharply increasing its arsenal, according to the latest Israeli intelligence assessment.

Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has easily defeated a radical Jewish settler in the race to lead the hardline Likud Party.

In their first meeting on Palestinian soil, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today he hopes to launch negotiations “soon” on establishing a Palestinian state, his clearest promise yet to tackle a final peace deal.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today said he hopes to reach a peace deal with Israel within a year.

Former British prime minister Tony Blair gets down to business as Mideast envoy this week.

Beitar Jerusalem are confident they will secure the services of Bolton midfielder Idan Tal.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Efforts to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking will shift into higher gear in the coming week, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert travelling to Jordan and his foreign minister heading to Cairo to discuss a sweeping Arab peace proposal, an Israeli official said today.

Israel’s army has developed a plan for creating a “buffer zone” of about 300 yards inside the fence around the Gaza Strip in an effort to stop Palestinian rocket fire, military officials said today.

An Israeli archaeologist has found the tomb of King Herod, the legendary builder of ancient Jerusalem and the Holy Land, at a compound on a hill south of the city, the Hebrew University announced late tonight.

Israeli agents have arrested a ring of Islamic militants who planned to set off a massive car bomb in Tel Aviv over the Passover Jewish holiday, ending a five-month ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert praised an Arab peace plan that calls for the full recognition of Israel as a major breakthrough in Arab relations with the Jewish state, but he flatly rejected its demand for the return of Palestinian refugees, Israeli media reported today.

Israel’s Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has hailed a peace drive by Arab states as marking a “revolutionary change”.