The United States is preparing to donate more than $900 million for the reconstruction of Gaza, a U.S. official said Monday, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepared to attend a donors conference for the war-ravaged territory next week.
Israeli and Palestinian officials said earlier Monday that Clinton will visit Israel and the West Bank during the first week of March for her first trip to the region as America’s top diplomat.
Clinton said during her Asia trip this month that she would attend an international donors conference in Egypt on …

Binyamin Netanyahu described Iran as the greatest threat that Israel has ever faced and failed to mention stalled talks with the Palestinians after he was asked to be the country’s new Prime Minister today.
In a speech made outside the residence of President Shimon Peres, the Likud leader said that protecting Israel would be his greatest responsibility as leader, and condemned “formidable” challenges posed by the Islamic Republic.
However, he did not once mention the stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process or a two-state solution throughout his address, omissions that will cause concern within …

Israel’s prime minister denied media reports that it is negotiating with the militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, but said there will be Israeli “consultations” Sunday “regarding the situation in the south.”
“Should a decision of any kind be required, it will be made only via a meeting of the Security Cabinet and after taking into account all of the new political circumstances that have been created in the wake of the recent Israeli elections,” Yanki Galanti, the media adviser for Ehud Olmert, said Saturday night in a statement.

Hamas officials said Friday that an announcement of an 18-month cease-fire with Israel was days away and would include a substantial opening of Gaza’s borders with Israel in exchange for an end to Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli southern communities. But a senior Israeli official said nothing had been agreed on yet.
Meanwhile, rockets were fired into Israel on Friday, causing no damage or injuries, and Israeli warplanes struck the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis, wounding two Popular Resistance Committee fighters.

Israel has launched several air raids against targets in southern Gaza near the border with Egypt, causing damages but no injuries, Palestinian security sources have said.
The strikes targeted “open areas” near the town of Rafah and tunnels along the border with Egypt, residents said.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that the “Israeli air force intervened in the Gaza Strip,” late on Friday.
“Our planes attacked four tunnels that were dug under the border with Egypt and used for weapons smuggling,” the spokesman told AFP news agency.

The Arab League has condemned Israel’s seizure of a ship carrying humanitarian aid from Lebanon to the Gaza Strip.
The league’s envoy to the United Nations, Yahya Mahmassani called the interception an act of piracy and asked U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to intervene.
Crew members and journalists aboard the Lebanese ship say Israel’s military fired in the ship’s direction before Israeli forces boarded the vessel. The Israeli military denied it fired on the ship.
Israeli officials said the Lebanese ship was escorted to the Israeli port of Ashdod, and that any aid …

CAIRO: A senior Palestinian official says Saudi Arabia has offered proposals to back Egyptian-led Palestinian reconciliation efforts crucial to forming a lasting cease-fire between Hamas and Israel.
The Palestinian representative to Egypt, Nabil Amr, says he’s not authorized to disclose the details about the proposals. But he says Arab ministers meeting Tuesday in the United Arab Emirates will discuss the Saudi proposals.
Egypt is leading these efforts between rival Palestinian factions — Hamas and Fatah. These efforts are key to the cease-fire and the revival of peace talks with Israel.

Israel threatened more strikes against Hamas on Monday hours after aircraft bombed Gaza in response to new rocket fire from the Islamist-ruled enclave.
Israeli aircraft late on Sunday targeted an empty police station in central Gaza and some seven tunnels along the Gaza Strip’s southern border with Egypt, witnesses said.
The action came two weeks after the end of an Israeli offensive that devastated the impoverished territory and left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.

Israeli warplanes bombed a weapons production facility in Gaza on Thursday after militants fired a rocket at Israel, in violence that defied the efforts of a visiting U.S. peace envoy to reinforce a ceasefire.
There were no reports of injuries from the predawn Israeli strike in the town of Rafah, along Gaza’s border with Egypt. Witnesses and Hamas Islamists said a metal foundry was damaged.
Moments earlier, a militant group with links to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement claimed responsibility for firing a rocket at southern Israel late on Wednesday.

A senior European Union official touring war-torn Gaza has blamed the ruling militant movement Hamas for the humanitarian crisis there.
Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel’s offensive “abominable”, but said Hamas bore “overwhelming responsibility”.
He said there would be no dialogue with the “terrorist” movement until it gave up violence and recognised Israel.
He also announced emergency aid for Gaza worth more than US $70m (£50m).