Israel/Palästina

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process told the Security Council on Wednesday that he was “encouraged” by the recent engagement of senior Israeli and Palestinian officials. 

Speaking at the UNGA, the PA leader accused Israel of ‘apartheid’ and ‘ethnic cleansing’ and threatened to withdraw recognition of the state unless it withdraws from the Palestinian territory.

The top UN envoy for the Middle East peace process told the UN Security Council on Monday that three months after the deadly escalation in violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, the situation there remains tense.

Israel’s defence minister has announced a series of gestures aimed at strengthening the Palestinian Authority, including plans to loan $150m to the cash-strapped autonomy government in the occupied West Bank. The announcement on Monday came a day after Defence Minister Benny Gantz met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the first high-level meeting between the two sides in years.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits the United States on his first official trip abroad.

The rocket fire could jeopardise three months of relative calm since Israel attacked Gaza over 11 bloody days.

The latest escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict brought important shifts in the status quo, underscoring the necessity of a political settlement. A peace based on equal respect for both peoples’ rights will take time, however. Steps to lower the temperature are urgent in the interim.

A report from the human rights watchdog has concluded that violence during the May Gaza conflict amounted to war crimes. The investigation focused on three Israeli airstrikes.

Former United Nations human rights chief Navi Pillay will lead the UN’s unprecedented open-ended inquiry into “systematic” abuses in Israel and the Palestinian territories, it was announced on Thursday.

The cessation of hostilities negotiated last month between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, remains “very fragile”, the UN envoy there told the Security Council on Thursday. “The UN is working closely with all concerned parties and partners…to solidify a ceasefire, allow the entry of urgent humanitarian  assistance and stabilize the situation in Gaza”, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said, … .