Istanbul: The United States asked Turkey's leader to delay a Gaza Strip visit so as not to upset US efforts to revive Ankara's ties with Israel and Middle East peace talks, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has for years spoken of his desire to visit the Palestinian enclave, said last week he planned to go in late May 2013 after an official visit to the United States.
But Kerry said a Turkish visit to Gaza, controlled by the Hamas Islamist group which rejects Israel's existence, might distract from efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.
"With respect to the PM's potential visit to Gaza: We have expressed to the PM that we really think it would be better delayed and it shouldn't take place at this point in time," Kerry told a news conference in Istanbul....
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02:00 AM, Apr 22, 2013
The Fatah party of Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas staged a massive rally on January 4 in the Gaza Strip, the first such gathering in the territory since the Islamist Hamas group took control there in 2007 and a reflection of the warming ties between the two rival factions. Throngs camped out overnight in a downtown Gaza square to ensure themselves a spot for the anniversary commemoration of Fatah's 1959...
06:04 PM, Jan 04, 2013
Hamas accused Israel on Saturday of violating the shaky, Egyptian-brokered Gaza truce of November 21 after Israeli troops killed a Palestinian taking part in a protest at the enclave's border fence. ...
02:06 AM, Dec 02, 2012
A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding. But Hamas' political chief Khaled Meshaal says they will continue to resist Israel, accusing Tel Aviv of rejecting peace. ...
08:55 AM, Nov 25, 2012
New Delhi: In an oblique criticism of Israel's offensive in Gaza, India on Wednesday said "disproportionate use of force" was completely unacceptable and demanded immediate de-escalation of the conflict in the region. Against the backdrop of criticism that India was muted in its response to the latest conflict in Gaza, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid told reporters that "we did say categorically that the disproportionate use of force is unacceptable"....
12:52 PM, Nov 21, 2012
Gaza/Israel: Israeli air strikes shook the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rockets struck across the border as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton held talks in Jerusalem in the early hours of Wednesday, seeking a truce that can hold back Israel's ground troops. Hamas, the Islamist movement controlling Gaza, and Egypt, whose new, Islamist government is trying to broker a truce, had floated hopes for a ceasefire by late Tuesday; but...
12:11 PM, Nov 21, 2012
Gaza City: Israeli airstrikes killed three Palestinian journalists in their cars, a Gaza health official and the head of the Hamas-run Al Aqsa TV said. Israel acknowledged targeting the men, claiming they had ties to militants. The strikes came on Tuesday on the seventh day of Israel's offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers. A number of journalists have been killed over the years while covering fighting between the Jewish state and...
04:29 AM, Nov 21, 2012
Jerusalem: US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in Jerusalem for talks on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as expectations rose of a ceasefire soon to end a week of fighting around the Gaza Strip. However, Gaza's rulers, the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, revised a statement that a truce would start overnight, saying it was still waiting for an Israeli response to proposals and did not now expect...
03:49 AM, Nov 21, 2012
Jerusalem: A Hamas official said on Tuesday Egypt had brokered a Gaza ceasefire deal that would go into effect within hours, but a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "we're not there yet". "An agreement for calm has been reached. It will be declared at 9 o'clock (1900 GMT) and go into effect at midnight (2200 GMT)," Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters from Cairo, where intensive efforts...
12:51 AM, Nov 21, 2012
Jerusalem: A senior Hamas official says his group is close to a cease-fire with Israel, but a deal has not yet been reached. Moussa Abu Marzouk said on Tuesday from Cairo that "we haven't struck the deal yet, but we are progressing and it will most likely be tonight." Cease-fire talks have been taking place in the Egyptian capital. The deal would end nearly a week of fighting between Israel...
10:23 PM, Nov 20, 2012
At least 111 people have already died in the week-long offensive. Israel is waiting on Egypt's truce efforts before making a move towards a ground invasion on Gaza. ...
02:33 PM, Nov 20, 2012
US President Barack Obama is sending Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Middle East in hopes that she can help mediate an end to bloody conflict in the region. A deputy White House national security adviser says Clinton will depart later today from Cambodia, where she had accompanied Obama on a visit to Southeast Asia. Clinton will begin her Mideast diplomacy by meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
01:40 PM, Nov 20, 2012
Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip and killed a senior militant with a missile strike on a media center on Monday. ...
11:50 PM, Nov 19, 2012
Gaza City: Israeli aircraft struck crowded areas in the Gaza Strip and killed a senior militant with a missile strike on a media center on Monday, driving up the Palestinian death toll to 100, as Israel broadened its targets in the 6-day-old offensive meant to quell Hamas rocket fire on Israel. Escalating its bombing campaign over the weekend, Israel began attacking homes of activists in Hamas, the Islamic militant group...
11:28 PM, Nov 19, 2012
CNN's Anderson Cooper is reporting from Gaza. An explosion went off just he was giving us this update. ...
10:31 AM, Nov 19, 2012
Gaza/Jerusalem: Hostilities between Islamist militants and Israel entered a sixth day on Monday as diplomatic efforts were set to intensify to try to stop rocket fire from the Gaza Strip and Israeli air strikes on Gaza. International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount after the deadliest single incident in the flare-up on Sunday claimed the lives of at least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children. Three people, including...
10:20 AM, Nov 19, 2012
Jerusalem: At least 11 Palestinian civilians, including four children, were killed on Sunday in what Hamas said was an Israeli air strike on a Gaza apartment building, the highest death toll in a single incident in five days of fighting. Israel gave off signs of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-run enclave as the next stage in its air and sea offensive billed as a bid to stop Palestinian...
10:12 PM, Nov 18, 2012
Jerusalem: Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip from air and sea for a fifth straight day on Sunday, preparing for a possible ground invasion while also spelling out its conditions for a truce. Palestinians launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day. The "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down two of the rockets fired toward Israel's biggest city...
08:02 PM, Nov 18, 2012
Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with about 300 airstrikes on Saturday and shot down a Palestinian rocket fired at Tel Aviv, the military said, widening a blistering assault to include the Hamas prime minister's headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels. The intensified airstrikes came as Egyptian-led attempts to broker a cease-fire and end Israel's four-day-old Gaza offensive gained momentum. The leaders of Hamas and...
01:02 PM, Nov 18, 2012
Jerusalem: The hostilities between Israel and Hamas have found a new battleground: social media. The Israeli Defence Forces and Hamas militants have exchanged fiery tweets throughout the fighting in a separate war to influence public opinion. Shortly after it launched its campaign Wednesday by killing Hamas' top military commander Ahmed Jabari, the Israeli military's media office announced a "widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip" on...
10:16 AM, Nov 16, 2012
