Turkey has for the first time threatened to break diplomatic ties with Israel over its raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May. Turkey’s foreign minister said a break could only be averted if Israel either apologised or accepted the outcome of an international inquiry into the raid. Read the full story

Australia’s government said on Monday it had ordered the expulsion of an Israeli diplomat over the use of fake passports in the assassination of a top Hamas militant in Dubai in January. Read the full story

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has defended his policy of settlement expansions amid mounting criticism that has dipped Tel Aviv into international isolation under his leadership. Read the full story

Israel has launched a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip with its troops entering the south of the long-blockaded coastal sliver. Read the full story

Israeli officials would not reveal on Wednesday whether the government would respond positively to a US demand for a four-month halt to construction in east Jerusalem, in exchange for the Palestinians agreeing to direct talks with Israel during this period. Read the full story

The UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights says Israel has failed to properly probe complaints of war crimes during the regime’s massive offensive against the Gaza Strip in December 2008. Read the full story

The mysterious death of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month has prompted Hamas to launch an internal investigation to determine whether Israel has managed to infiltrate the highest echelons of the Islamist movement, a senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip revealed on Tuesday. Read the full story