In what has been described as a humanitarian gesture, the Israeli government on Thursday began handing over the remains of 91 Palestinians killed in attacks against Israeli targets over the last four decades.
The remains, which had been interred in numbered graves by Israel, began arriving in the West Bank and Gaza early Thursday morning, reported WAFA, the Palestinian Authority-controlled news agency.
The remains of 79 Palestinians will be delivered to the seat of the Palestinian government in Ramallah, where Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will preside over an official funeral service.
The remaining 12 will be delivered to families in Gaza.
Among the returned will be the remains of seven Palestinians involved in a 1975 attack against The Savoy hotel in Tel Aviv.
FULL STORYGaza City (CNN) - Five people were killed Monday in Gaza, the latest deaths in days of airstrikes that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 100 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday.
At least 23 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 75 people have been wounded.
Three civilians and two militants were killed in what Palestinian medical officials said were Israeli airstrikes Monday.
FULL STORYFour people were wounded when an explosive device attached to an Israeli Embassy van detonated near the Israeli mission in New Delhi, officials said Monday.
It was one of two explosives discovered on Israeli Embassy vehicles Monday. The other was found on an embassy car in Tblisi, Georgia, and that device was detonated in a controlled explosion with no injuries, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed both incidents on Iran, calling it "the biggest exporter of terror in the world."
"The Israeli government and her security organizations are continuing to operate together with local security services against these acts of terror," Netanyahu said. "We will continue to act in a strong way, systematically and steadfastly."
One of the wounded in New Delhi is the wife of an Israeli defense wing officer and the other is the Indian driver of the car, said Syed Akbaruddin, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs. He said both were being treated and "are OK." Two others in a vehicle next to the van sustained minor injuries, according to BK Gupta, an Indian police official.
FULL STORYIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handily won his Likud party leadership primary Tuesday, furthering speculation that he may soon call for nationwide elections.
FULL STORYPalestinian negotiators agreed to give up large swaths of East Jerusalem to Israel during negotiations dating back to 2008, the Al-Jazeera network said Sunday, suggesting Palestinians have been willing to offer much larger concessions in private than what was previously acknowledged in public.
The report is based on a trove of nearly 1,700 internal documents the network said it had obtained. Al-Jazeera did not disclose the source of the material, nor did it say how the documents came into its possession. It said it will be releasing what it has between Sunday and Wednesday of this week.
The papers, some of which were posted on the network's website, shed new light on the details of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from 1999 through last year. They could not be immediately verified by CNN.
The documents outline meetings between Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. officials in which Palestinian negotiators offered in 2008 to relinquish claims on nearly all of the settlements built in East Jerusalem.
The offer was flatly rejected by the Israeli side, according to the posted documents.
FULL STORY[Updated 4:03 p.m.] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the talks should be conducted without preconditions and lead as soon as possible to direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, spokesman Nir Hefetz said in a statement Saturday.
[Posted 2:19 p.m.] Palestinian leaders have agreed to begin indirect peace talks with Israel, a Palestinian official said Saturday.
U.S. special envoy George Mitchell will broker the talks, shuttling between the two sides, Palestinian presidential adviser Yasser Abed Rabbo told reporters.
Israeli forces said Friday they killed a Palestinian gunman who was trying to plant an explosive near a security fence in northern Gaza Strip.
Two Palestinians were killed and three others were injured early Tuesday in an exchange of fire between members of the militant group Islamic Jihad and the Israeli army, medical officials in Gaza said.
British journalist Paul Martin was free Thursday and on his way to Israel after his arrest by Hamas in Gaza a month ago.
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