Dervla Murphy’s call for a boycott of Israel is one-sided and shows a misunderstanding of the facts, writes Boaz Modai

A DUBLIN-born journalist had to be restrained by bodyguards yesterday after he attempted a “citizen’s arrest” of former British prime minister Tony Blair in the European Parliament.

Top Hamas fugitives lobbed grenades and fired automatic weapons today to push back Palestinian security forces storming their hideout, leaving six dead in the bloodiest clash since the Palestinian president launched a crackdown on Hamas in the West Bank two years ago.

An increasingly disturbing picture of the Israeli army’s conduct in the Gaza war has emerged as more troops described wanton vandalism to Palestinian homes, humiliation of civilians and loose rules of engagement that resulted in unnecessary deaths.

More than 5,000 Hamas supporters rallied in Gaza tonight, as a top Hamas politician appeared in public for the first time since the war's start and remained defiant despite Hamas's heavy losses.

Tens of thousands of children wearing uniforms and carrying satchels flocked back to schools throughout the Gaza Strip today, days after Israel ended its fierce military operation against the territory’s rulers, the militant group Hamas.

More than 250 children have been killed in the Gaza fighting, according to the latest UN figures.

Israel gave a guarded welcome to a ceasefire proposal for Gaza today raising hopes its bloody 12-day offensive could be winding down.

Israel has called up thousands of reserve soldiers for a possible ground invasion as it widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers.

Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel’s deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants widened their sights today, dropping bombs on smuggling tunnels that are a major weapons pipeline for the Gaza Strip’s Islamic Hamas rulers.

An Israeli probe of a blast that killed eight Palestinian civilians on a Gaza beach last Friday will announce that it almost certainly came from a Hamas militant mine and not an Israeli shell, military officials said today.

A British human rights lawyer returned to London today after being denied entry into Israel.

Palestinian gunmen challenged the authority of their own leaders in a West Bank refugee camp yesterday, firing weapons and setting off a bomb as Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia delivered an emotional lecture on the need to end internal violence.

After a four-month lull in fighting, the two largest Palestinian militant groups are threatening to withdraw from a cease-fire, accusing Israel of violating the truce with continued military operations.

Hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated today to call on Palestinian authorities to instill order in light of a rise in violent crimes in the coastal strip.

Palestinians retrieved belongings from the rubble of dozens of homes and work crews patched up roads and water pipes today – the aftermath of Israel’s 17-day military offensive, the deadliest in the Gaza Strip in four years of fighting.

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has called on the Government, in its role as president of the EU, to do more to halt ongoing Israeli military operations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Israel’s Supreme Court today rejected a petition calling for the army to stop demolishing Palestinian homes along the Gaza-Egypt border.