Occupied Jerusalem: Jordan’s King Abdullah asked Israeli leaders at a secret meeting in Amman this week to refrain from a large-scale incursion into the Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source said on Thursday.
The source, confirming Israeli radio stations’ reports, said Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declined to give a guarantee, saying Israel “cannot restrain itself for long” and might invade Gaza if fighters continued firing rockets into Israel.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel stood fast Wednesday by its decision to clamp shut cargo crossings at the Gaza Strip, brushing off pleas to ease the blockade from United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon.
Israel sealed the passages two weeks ago after a 5-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza militants started unraveling in an effort to halt rocket and mortar fire at Israeli border towns.

Jerusalem Israeli tanks entered the southern Gaza Strip yesterday, drawing mortar fire from Palestinian militants and undermining a tenuous truce. The tanks, backed by a bulldozer, drove 500 metres into the strip and levelled earth near Rafah, Gaza’s southeastern border crossing with Egypt. Israel said that the operation was mounted to uncover explosives, while the Palestinians accused Israel of trying to increase violence. The latest fighting began two weeks ago and there is now a near-daily cycle of mortar attacks on southern Israeli towns and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. At …

The Majlis’ National Security and Foreign Policy Commission criticizes Pakistan for failing to protect a kidnapped Iranian diplomat.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, the head of the Iranian parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, criticized the Pakistani government for failing to protect the kidnapped Iranian diplomat.
“Pakistan has lost its security,” he stated.

An Israeli air strike killed four militants in the Gaza Strip on Sunday and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had commissioned a plan for military action in the Hamas-run territory should rocket attacks on Israel persist. “I ordered security chiefs to present their proposals to me as soon as possible so that an orderly plan of action could, if necessary, be brought to the decision-makers in the government for approval,” Olmert told his cabinet, in broadcast remarks.

Why did Russian President Dmitry Medvedev name Yunus-Bek Yevkurov as president of Ingushetia?
Noted Russian journalist and expert on the Caucasus Yulia Latynina has speculated that Yevkurov has been given the same task as the president of the neighboring Republic of Chechnya: to suppress the armed resistance (in terms of the intensity of that resistance, Ingushetia is now the most dangerous place in the North Caucasus) and to take the situation in the republic under firm control.

The UN in the Gaza Strip says it will run out of food aid in two days unless Israel’s blockade – which it describes as “shameful and unacceptable” – eases.
The UN refugee agency Unrwa, which distributes food to half of Gaza’s 1,5m people, called the blockade “a physical as well as a mental punishment”.
Israel is now allowing a limited amount of fuel across the border, but it is still blocking food deliveries.
It says it tightened sanctions because of rocket attacks by militants.
The Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, said …

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Israeli aircraft fired missiles at militants in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday and Palestinians sent rocket barrages flying into Israel, officials said, as newly resumed violence threatened to bury a five-month-old truce.
The renewed rocket fire from Gaza prompted Israel to seal its crossings with the territory, halting shipments of food aid and fuel.

France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy says he is concerned about Russia’s threat to deploy missiles near Poland and wants a summit on European security.
“We really must move forward… to remove sources of friction,” Mr Sarkozy said at a joint news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Armenian officials have expressed general satisfaction with the results of the November 2 meeting in Moscow involving the presidents of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia, but many observers in Yerevan doubt that the summit will produce a breakthrough in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. Most analysts cite a lack of specifics in the joint declaration signed by the three leaders as a sign that significant progress cannot occur quickly.