Palestinian terrorism

Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian near the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank on July 22 in clashes following an arrest raid, medical and security sources said.

Human Rights Watch on July 20 accused Israel of ?abusive arrests? of Palestinian children as young as 11 and of using threats to force them to sign confessions.

Explosions on July 19 destroyed five cars in Gaza belonging to members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, witnesses and a security source said, amid tensions between the Palestinian territory's rulers and Islamist extremists.

Two Israelis are being held captive in the Gaza Strip, including one detained by Hamas after crossing into the territory last year, Israeli officials said July 9, raising fears of another hostage crisis.

The defence ministry said that "according to credible intelligence" Avraham Mengistu, an Israeli of Ethiopian descent, "is being held against his will by Hamas in Gaza."  

In the ruins of what used to be his home, Gaza Strip resident Rabah Abu Shanab reflects on what used to be - and what little hope remains.

"We were doing better a year ago," the 57-year-old said while sitting on a plastic chair in his living room, now just concrete slabs and twisted iron bars.

"The whole world was paying attention to Gaza, but today nobody cares."

Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian teenager in the West Bank on July 3 after he threw stones at their patrol, Palestinian medical and security sources said.

The Israeli air force struck a militant target in the Gaza Strip early on June 24, the military said, hours after Palestinians fired a rocket into southern Israel.

"In response to this attack, the Israel Defence Forces struck the launcher from which the rocket was fired at Israel earlier," an army statement said.

"A hit was confirmed."  

An announcement by an Arab Israeli lawmaker that he plans to join a pro-Palestinian flotilla seeking to break Israel's blockade on Gaza caused outrage June 22 among the country's political class.

10 people were shot and one killed, aged 21, after a man open-fired at a block party on a basketball court on Detroit’s west side. Police have yet to release the name of the person killed on Saturday evening. Sky News reports that two semi-automatic weapons were used in the attack. Within hours of the attack, an eleventh person was shot at a separate incident at a gas station.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 19 denounced what he called the "hypocrisy" of the United Nations after UN chief Ban Ki-moon demanded Israel protect the lives of children in Gaza.