Hamas leaders on Friday delivered an envelope with five crisp $100 bills to a veiled woman whose house was damaged during Israel's invasion of Gaza, the first of the relief payments promised by the militant group. ...more

January 24, 2009

Israeli soldiers flashed the victory sign Sunday as they began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Shell-shocked Palestinians emerged from shelters and counted their dead. As a tenuous cease-fire took hold, however, few people on either side predicted an end to the cycle of violence that has endured for generations. ...more

January 19, 2009

Israel widened its deadliest-ever air offensive against Gaza's Hamas leadership Sunday, pounding smuggling tunnels and government strongholds, sending more tanks and artillery toward the Gaza border and activating thousands of reservists for a possible ground invasion. ...more

December 29, 2008

Gaza's deeply entrenched Hamas rulers won't be easily toppled, even by Israel's unprecedented bombings Saturday that killed more than 200 people, most of them men in Hamas uniform. ...more

December 28, 2008

France has had contacts with the leaders of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas "for several months," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday. ...more

May 20, 2008