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This photo taken on October 21, 2011 shows then Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah (L) and Yahya Sinwar (R), a founder of the Ezzedine Qassam Brigades, waving as supporters celebrate the release of hundreds of prisoners following a swap with captured Israeli trooper Gilad Shalit in the southern city of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip. (Photo by AFP) The Palestinian Islamic resistance movement, Hamas, has named a high-ranking member of its military wing as its new leader in the Gaza Strip. Hamas officials said on Monday that Yahya Sinwar, a senior commander of the Ezzedine Qassam Brigades, was elected to head the movement’s political office in Gaza. He will succeed Ismail Haniya, who served as the democratically-elected prime minister of the Hamas government which took control of the coastal sliver in June 2007. Many observers view Haniyah as the most likely successor to Khaled Meshaal, who is the Hamas political bureau chief and lives in exile in the Qatari capital city of Doha. Khalil al-H

In this file photo, an explosion is seen following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah town in the southern Gaza Strip. At least two Palestinians have lost their lives when the Israeli military carried out an airstrike against an area on the border between Egypt's troubled Sinai Peninsula and the besieged Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said the attack targeted a tunnel which Gazans use to bring basic needs into the coastal enclave in the border town of Rafah early on Thursday, leaving two Palestinians dead and five others injured. The sources identified the deceased as 24-year-old Hessam Hamid al-Soufi and 38-year-old Mohammad Anwar al-Aqra’, both residents of Gaza City. Two of the injured are in critical condition. The victims have reportedly been taken to the Youssef al-Najjar hospital in Rafah to receive treatment, Arabic-language Palestine al-Yawm news agency reported. The airstrike came shortly after the Israeli military claimed that it had intercepted several rockets fired f

A general view picture shows home in the Israeli outpost of Palgey Maim, in the occupied West Bank February 6, 2017. REUTERS/BAZ RATNER Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett gestures during a vote on a bill at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem February 6, 2017. REUTERS/AMMAR AWAD By Maayan Lubell | JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel passed a law on Monday retroactively legalizing about 4,000 settler homes built on privately owned Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, a measure that has drawn international concern. The legislation has been condemned by Palestinians as a blow to their hopes of statehood. But its passage may only be largely symbolic as it contravenes Israeli Supreme Court rulings on property rights. Israel's attorney-general has said it is unconstitutional and that he will not defend it at the Supreme Court. Though the legislation, passed by a vote of 60 to 52, was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing coalition, i