Hamas

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Senate Brokers Truce With Bush on Domestic Spying

Includes immunity for phone companies

(Newser) - Senate Democrats and Republicans have brokered a deal on legislation regarding the White House domestic spying and wiretapping program—including a highly controversial grant of immunity to telecommunication companies that co-operated with warrantless wiretaps. The deal marks a victory for the White House because Democrats had to kill a House...

Hamas Seeks Talks With Fatah Over Gaza

Meetings could begin next week, but Fatah leaders skeptical

(Newser) - Hamas officials said yesterday they are prepared to meet with Fatah leaders to discuss the future of the Gaza Strip, and indicated they might give up control of the region they've held since June. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted Hamas hand over Gaza and recognize his authority before talks...

Israel to Release 87 Fatah Prisoners

Fatah supporters to be freed in bid to shore up moderate faction

(Newser) - Israel will free 87 Palestinian prisoners today despite unspecific "technical reasons" that held up their release after they donned civilian clothes and were about to board a bus for home. Most of the prisoners are Fatah supporters, and their freedom is a bid by Israel to shore up the...

Israel Declares Gaza Officially an Enemy

Plans to cut off electricity, supplies and fuel

(Newser) - Israel’s Security Cabinet declared Hamas-controlled Gaza a “hostile entity” in a unanimous vote today, and plans to cut off almost all the region’s electricity, supplies and fuel shipments. Only essential food and medicine, and enough fuel to run hospital generators will be allowed in. Hamas described the...

Hamas Trade Restrictions Cripple Gaza Economy

85% of all factories have shut down

(Newser) - Since Hamas captured Gaza last June, nearly all trade has been cut off, suffocating both legitimate businesses and those that operate outside the law, the New York Times reports. An estimated 85% of factories are shut or operating at less than 20%. Both a clothing manufacturer and a gun smuggler...

Fatah, Hamas Unite for Ramadan
Fatah, Hamas Unite for Ramadan

Fatah, Hamas Unite for Ramadan

Despite shared start date for holy month, tensions still run high

(Newser) - Ramadan this year will mark a brief expression of unity for the rival Palestinian governments of Hamas, in Gaza, and Fatah, in the West Bank. The holy month begins today or tomorrow—and deciding the date can cause tension between factions across the Muslim world, the AP reports. And despite...

Hamas Launches Navy in Gaza
Hamas Launches Navy in Gaza

Hamas Launches Navy in Gaza

Palestinian faction is recruiting sailors; now all they need is a ship

(Newser) - Hamas, the Palestinian faction that seized power in the Gaza Strip in June, is launching a naval defense force, reports the Times. They're busy recruiting sailors—even though they don't have any ships.  “The requirements to join are that you have to be a good soldier, be fit,...

For Palestinian Hamas Faction, Surprise Payday

Fatah accidentally bankrolls rival's security forces

(Newser) - To victors in Palestinian factional fighting went the spoils, if temporarily, the BBC reports. Officers of Hamas' security force, which wrested control of the Gaza Strip from rival Fatah in June, were notified yesterday that Fatah had paid their salaries. The West Bank-based, Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority rushed to correct its...

Olmert, Abbas Talk on Palestinian Soil

Jericho get-together signals progress in stalled peace process

(Newser) - Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas met in the West Bank city of Jericho today, the first time an Israeli head of state has been to the Palestinian territories in 7 years. The meeting was an attempt by both parties to bolster the moderate Fatah party’s standing and to bring...

Rice Pushes Peace Talks With Olmert, Abbas

Takes mission to Jerusalem, West Bank

(Newser) - Condoleezza Rice took her diplomatic tour to Jerusalem and the West Bank today, hoping to rekindle peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian government of Mahmoud Abbas. Rice comes bearing a promise from Saudi Arabia to support the peace conference proposed by the White House for later this year, Reuters...

Bee Replaces Martyr Mouse on Hamas TV

Nahoul the Bee subs for Farfour, vows to continue Islamist extremism

(Newser) - Hamas TV's most Youtubed program has made a casting change that already has bloggers buzzing: A children's show introduced a giant bee named Nahoul to replace Mickey Mouse knockoff Farfour, a cuddly militant who was martyred last month by an Israeli spy. In a spooky falsetto, Nahoul announced himself as...

Hamas Frees Kidnapped Lioness
Hamas Frees Kidnapped Lioness

Hamas Frees Kidnapped Lioness

Crime gang stole cub Sabrina from Gaza zoo 20 months ago

(Newser) - Hamas soldiers yesterday freed Sabrina the lioness in a raid on a Palestinian crime gang that kidnapped her 20 months ago. The four-month-old cub and a pair of Arabic-speaking parrots were snatched from the Gaza zoo, and Sabrina was left to languish in a dark cell where curious spectators snapped...

Johnston Tells of 'Appalling,' 'Terrifying' Ordeal

Freed BBC reporter describes kidnapping

(Newser) - Alan Johnston's 16 weeks in captivity were an "appalling" experience that made him feel "buried alive," the BBC reporter tells the Evening Times of Glasgow. Johnston, freed yesterday, said he dreamed of freedom "but always woke up in that room." In Jerusalem yesterday after being...

Johnston Release Boosts Hamas
Johnston Release Boosts Hamas

Johnston Release Boosts Hamas

Freeing BBC reporter is attempt to send message

(Newser) - Alan Johnston's release after 12 weeks in captivity was used by Hamas today to separate itself from the al-Qaeda-inspired kidnappers, and to assert its ability to secure order in Gaza, the BBC reports. The freed reporter was taken to the home of Hamas leader Ismail Haniya, who was outsted as...

BBC Reporter Freed in Gaza
BBC Reporter Freed in Gaza

BBC Reporter Freed in Gaza

Alan Johnston handed over to Hamas after 114 days in captivity

(Newser) - Alan Johnston, the BBC reporter held by an Islamist faction in Gaza for 114 days, was released early today, saying it was "fantastic" to be free. The reporter was handed over to officials of Hamas, now in control of the Gaza Strip, by his captors, a militant splinter group...

Olmert Gets Assist From Barak, Perez

Old allies pull Israeli prime minister back from brink of disaster

(Newser) - Ehud Olmer's year and a half in office have been a calamity for Israel—the election of Hamas in Palestine, the breakdown of the peace process, the botched war with Hezbollah, the Hamas takeover of Gaza. But the profoundly unpopular PM, whose approval rating sank to 3%, is actually in...

Hamas Brings Peace to Gaza —at Gunpoint

Civil army rules the streets with show of force, but no law

(Newser) - Two weeks of Hamas rule have brought calm to Gaza—beaches are crowded, streets are choked with cars and donkey carts—but it is order delivered at the point of a gun. The Executive Force, Hamas's civil army, has seized control, bringing overwhelming force to bear on drug-dealers and clan...

Hamas Kills Off Farfour, the Cuddly Jihadist

TV finale has Israeli spy murdering militant Mickey Mouse clone

(Newser) - The lovable Farfour, a Mickey Mouse knockoff who taught Palestinian tots to take up the fight against Israel, has met a bloody end in his series on Hamas frequency Aqsa TV. An Israeli land-grabber characterized as a "terrorist" murdered Farfour in the show's finale, broadcast throughout the Palestinian territories...

Isolated Gaza Goes Hungry
Isolated Gaza Goes Hungry

Isolated Gaza Goes Hungry

Food is hard to come by for Palestinians in Hamas-controlled region

(Newser) - Fuel shortages have become familiar, and now food staples like flour and sugar are increasingly hard to come by in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Aid agencies are doing their best to forestall an impending humanitarian crisis, the Globe and Mail reports, but with the main commercial crossing from Israel closed...

Hamas Rips Blair Peace Mission
Hamas Rips Blair Peace Mission

Hamas Rips Blair Peace Mission

Former Brit chief 'not honest, not helpful'

(Newser) - Hamas, the Palestinian group now in control of Gaza, blasted Tony Blair's appointment as a Mideast peace envoy yesterday, characterizing the former British prime minister as "not honest and not helpful," and a puppet of the US and Israel, the BBC reports. Blair's new role, formalized hours after...

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