The Israeli government March 9 approved construction of a 330-unit housing project in Givat Zeev, a West Bank settlement already home to about 10,000 settlers. The project began in 1999 but was suspended when the second Intifada broke out the following year. Palestinian official Saeb Erekat called the project "another slap in the face of the peace process." Defending the decision, Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said: "We've said all along that there won't be a complete freeze in construction in the large settlement blocks. We've been very consistent and upfront."

Israeli authorities say the previously unknown Galilee Freedom Battalion was behind the March 6 attack on West Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Jewish seminary, and the gunman was an Arab from Jerusalem. (Ma'an News Agency, March 7) Opening fire with a Kalashnikov rifle in a ground-floor library, the gunman killed at least seven students and wounded nine before he himself was gunned down by an Israeli army officer. (NYT, March 7)

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vows to continue his campaign in the Gaza Strip despite an international outcry over the ground and air operation that have killed 73 Palestinians over the past two days following the death of one Israeli civilian last week in a militant rocket strike. Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas suspended all contacts with Israel over the assault. (AFP, March 2) The European Union criticized Israel's "disproportionate use of force," while the White House used more neutral language. US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at President George W. Bush's ranch in Texas, "The violence needs to stop and the talks need to resume." The UN Security Council, meeting in an emergency session, urged all sides to "immediately cease all acts of violence." (AFP, March 2)

Two Palestinian followers of Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades were killed Feb. 28 in clashes at Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus on the West Bank. Sources within the al-Aqsa Brigades told Ma'an News Agency that al-Aqsa fighters responded to the targeted assassination of militant Ibrahim al-Masimi by undercover Israeli forces. Eyewitnesses said that a large Israeli force invaded Balata camp early in the morning after an undercover force infiltrated into the camp. Fierce clashes erupted between the invading forces and Palestinian resistance fighters. (Ma'an News Agency, Feb. 28)

Shops and stores in downtown Gaza City closed their doors Feb. 23 as part of a general strike to protest Israel's siege of the Gaza Strip. Shop owners carried banners reading "closed because of the siege" in Arabic and English. Jamal al-Khoudari, director of the newly-formed independent anti-siege committee, said Gaza dealers and merchants have lost about $150 million since their imported goods have been held up by Israel's blockade. Placing a monument for the victims of the siege in a public square in Gaza, al-Khoudari said "the siege [has] killed 99 people so far" with many more at risk. "Thousands of patients wait to have a number in the list of dead because they can't go outside for further treatment and can't have the needed medicine here." (Xinhua, Feb. 23)

From Human Rights Watch, Feb. 17:

The human devastation inflicted on Lebanon by Israel's illegal use of cluster munitions highlights the urgent need for an international treaty banning the weapon, Human Rights Watch said in releasing a report today. At a conference this week, more than 100 states will discuss a treaty to ban cluster munitions, a process prompted in part by Israel's cluster attacks on Lebanon in 2006.

Security sources in Cairo said Feb. 8 that hundreds of Egyptian nationals who have returned from the Gaza Strip over the past three days are under investigation following claims they were trying to join Hamas. The Egyptians were reportedly members of fundamentalist groups who entered the Palestinian territories after the toppling of the Gaza border fence on Jan. 23 to join Hamas and fight against the Israeli occupation. The sources said Hamas asked them to return to Egypt. The sources told Reuters news agency that 600 Egyptians were seized, but women and children were allowed to return to their homes. (Ma'an News Agency, Feb. 8)

Emulating US strategies on the Mexican border, Israel has approved the construction of a reinforced fence along its border with Egypt to stop Palestinian militants reaching Israel via the Sinai desert. The measure was agreed by a security cabinet meeting in response to the temporary breach of the Gaza-Egypt border, when thousands of Palestinians left the Strip unchecked. Plans for a fence were considered years ago but dropped as too expensive.