Shalit march planned

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Prisoner release may do nothing for Shalit

Israeli defence sources have warned that the government decision to release 199 Palestinian prisoners as a gesture to the Palestinian Authority - and to apply pressure on Hamas over the negotiations to free Sergeant Gilad Shalit - might backfire.

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Fatah and Hamas in bitter clash

Hamas security forces beat many of the 200 Fatah prisoners they arrested last weekend in the largest crackdown by the Islamist movement on its secular rivals since they seized power in the Gaza Strip 13 months ago, human rights monitors claim.

The crackdown was launched after a bombing in a beachfront café in Gaza City last Friday which Hamas blamed on Fatah. A four-year-old girl and five Hamas militants were killed, and 27 people were injured. Fatah denied involvement.

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Israel divided over possible Shalit deal

Efforts to bring about the release of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit ran into further difficulties this week, when it emerged that the Israeli government is divided on the price to pay.

Fellow members of corporal Shalit’s tank platoon, who were discharged on Tuesday at the end of three years’ service, marched to the office of Defence Minister Ehud Barak to demand that he does more to ensure their comrade, captured two years ago, is freed.

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Soldiers come home on a day of public mourning

IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser were laid to rest yesterday (Thursday), two years and four days after the Hizbollah attack on their patrol which triggered the Second Lebanon War.

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Israel is in mourning as Hizbollah claims victory

“A nation in tears” is how President Shimon Peres summarised the nerve-wracking Wednesday in which Israel received the bodies of captured soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud (Udi) Goldwasser in return for the remains of 199 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters, four captured Hizbollah men and convicted murderer Samir Kuntar.

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Israel will ‘never discover’ Arad’s fate

Israel will probably never find out the fate of missing navigator Ron Arad, a senior Israeli figure said this week.

Last weekend, Hizbollah delivered a dossier on its efforts to locate the navigator, who bailed out over Lebanon 22 years ago, as part of the prisoner deal.

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Analysis: A bad deal closes a disastrous war

The last scenes of the disastrous Second Lebanon War were played out on Wednesday, and ended with Hizbollah being able to claim victory even more convincingly than they did two years ago.

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The POW swap was a bad deal

Freeing the murderer Samir Kuntar has shown Hizbollah that kidnaps pay

In a deal brokered by Germany, the government of Ehud Olmert has turned over to the terrorist organisation Hizbollah the bodies of around 200 Lebanese killed during the 2006 war, plus four still living Hizbollah terrorists currently held in Israel, and the convicted murderer Samir Kuntar.

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The man unlocking the real Abu Ghraib story

Oscar-winning film director Errol Morris explains why he is trying to uncover the real perpetrators of one of the most shameful episodes of the Iraqi war.

Some time ago, the Oscar-winning documentary-maker Errol Morris came across a series of photographs taken by the SS of the selections of Hungarian Jews for the gas chambers at Birkenau in 1944. “They are among some of the most extraordinary pictures in the history of photography, and they deeply fascinate me,” Morris says.

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