Palestinian local councils boycott American officials, journalists; Fayyad says he would give up any aid that is dependent on political conditions; Fatah calls for Hamas to join effort. Read the full story

A spokesman for the federal public prosecutor told The Jerusalem Post on Saturday that Poland had arrested an intelligence officer involved in the assassination of senior Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai. Read the full story

Israel was sharply rebuked and accused of war crimes and serious breaches of international law in Amnesty International’s annual report, published on Wednesday. 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

The Foreign Ministry issued an uncharacteristically sharp response on Wednesday to a Russian and Turkish call to include Hamas in the diplomatic process, drawing parallels between Hamas and Chechen terrorists and saying it was wrong to distinguish between “good” and “bad” terrorists. Read the full story

Israel is yet to replace a diplomat expelled after forged British passports were used in the killing of a Hamas leader, it has emerged. Read the full story

A senior Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri has held Egypt responsible for the death of four Palestinians killed in a border tunnel and has demanded for an impartial investigation. Read the full story

Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday, after getting a closer look at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories. Read the full story

Dubai has identified 15 new suspects in the assassination of a Hamas official at a Dubai luxury hotel, bringing the total number of people believed involved in the death to 26, the government said on Wednesday. Read the full story

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is expected to face a barrage of criticism from EU foreign ministers for the alleged use of forged EU passports in the killing of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, on the sidelines of the monthly EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Monday. Read the full story

The official explained to Bibi Netanyahu that if there was a peace settlement, extra investment would push Israel’s long-term growth rate from 5% a year to 7%. The Israeli prime minister responded that if the country had 5% growth, it did not need peace. Read the full story

Hours before Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu left for Moscow on Sunday evening, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov – on a visit to Nicaragua – called the situation in the Middle East “alarming” and proposed an urgent Quartet meeting. Read the full story

Israel is waging a covert assassination campaign across the Middle East in an effort to stop its key enemies co-ordinating their activities. Read the full story

Israeli warplanes have launched an overnight attack on the southern Gaza Strip, pounding an international airport in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory. Read the full story

Palestinian Authority officials will present more arguments in March urging the International Criminal Court to investigate possible war crimes allegedly committed during Operation Cast Lead, the court’s chief prosecutor said in an interview with the Reuters news agency published on Monday. Read the full story

Members of a hit squad who killed senior Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh used Irish passports to enter and leave Dubai, according to local police authorities quoted by the Evening Herald on Friday. 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

A senior Hamas military commander has been assassinated by Israel in Dubai, the Palestinian Islamist group claims. Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, 50, a founder of the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, “died a martyr on 20 January in suspicious circumstances”, a statement said. Read the full story