She was the strongest among them, the natural leader. So when the shelling stopped and the Israeli soldiers announced through loudspeakers that all residents should come out of their homes and head for the center of town, neighbors in Khozaa turned to Rawhiya Najar for guidance. ...more

February 16, 2009

Israeli soldiers flashed the victory sign Sunday as they began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Shell-shocked Palestinians emerged from shelters and counted their dead. As a tenuous cease-fire took hold, however, few people on either side predicted an end to the cycle of violence that has endured for generations. ...more

January 19, 2009

The war in Iraq has given the Nature Coast Coalition for Peace and Justice plenty to protest in the last five years. ...more

January 6, 2009

With little sign that the departing Bush administration will press Israel to halt the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, diplomats and political leaders throughout the Middle East and Europe are scrambling to find ways to bring an end to the violence. ...more

January 5, 2009

Israel and the Shiite militia Hezbollah on Wednesday conducted a prisoner exchange, with two coffins containing the bodies of abducted Israeli soldiers swapped for five Lebanese prisoners, including a convicted murderer. ...more

July 17, 2008

Israel will allow the resumption of food shipments into the Gaza Strip today after a four-day halt in response to Palestinian rocket attacks, Israeli officials said. ...more

June 29, 2008

Israel and Syria announced Wednesday that they were engaged in negotiations for a comprehensive peace treaty through Turkish mediators, a sign that Israel is hoping to halt the growing influence of Iran, Syria's most important ally, which sponsors the anti-Israel groups Hezbollah and Hamas. ...more

May 22, 2008

France has had contacts with the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas "for several months," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday. ...more

May 20, 2008

Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister and the leader of the Labor Party, announced Sunday that he would remain in the government, stabilizing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition despite last week's harsh report on the political and military leaders' handling of the Lebanon war in 2006. ...more

February 4, 2008

Egyptian security forces began imposing control over the country's breached border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, using clubs and dogs to police the thousands of Gazans still making their way past barricades blown up or toppled by Palestinian gunmen a day earlier. ...more

January 25, 2008