EGYPT’S first post-revolution vote will shift the political scene in favour of Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, whether or not the Muslim Brotherhood wins, analysts and Hamas officials say.

Israel today began releasing 429 Palestinian prisoners.

In a direct message to Hamas’ interior minister in Gaza, Israeli jet fighters destroyed his office early today, intensifying an air invasion while delaying a broad ground offensive to give Arab mediators a last chance to gain the release of a kidnapped soldier.