Sen. Barack Obama stepped gingerly through the intractable politics of the Middle East on Wednesday, offering resolute support for Israel's security, warning that Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons would be a "game-changing" event for the world, and pledging to make peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians one of his highest priorities if he becomes president. ...more

July 24, 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

The Gaza Strip's ruling Hamas militant group said Tuesday that it has reached a cease-fire with Israel meant to halt a cycle of deadly Palestinian rocket attacks that rained hundreds of rockets on Israel in the past year and Israeli reprisals that have killed hundreds of Palestinians. ...more

June 18, 2008

Israel struck hard against targets in Gaza on Wednesday, killing at least 20 Palestinians in a day of heavy fighting that also saw three Israeli soldiers die in a brazen Hamas ambush. ...more

April 17, 2008

The eight-month closure of Gaza has created "grim and miserable" conditions that deprive Palestinians of their basic dignity, the U.N.'s humanitarian chief said Friday. ...more

February 16, 2008

Egyptian troops closed the last breach in Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning, ending 11 days of free movement for Palestinian residents of the blockaded territory, witnesses and Hamas security officials said. ...more

February 4, 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

On foot, in cars and in donkey carts, tens of thousands of Gazans flooded into Egypt on Wednesday through a border fence blown up by militants - puncturing a gaping hole in Israel's airtight closure of the Gaza Strip and giving a boost to Hamas. ...more

January 24, 2008

The Gaza Strip's only electric power plant shut down Sunday evening after Israel halted the shipment of diesel that fuels it, plunging most of this city into darkness and threatening such vital services as hospitals, bakeries, water supply and sewage. ...more

January 21, 2008