MIDEAST: Settlement Expansion Cutting Into Peace

A secret government database revealed last week the real extent of settlement construction on the West Bank. In violation of the Road Map to peace agreed with the U.S., Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, it turned out, agreed to the construction of another settlement on the West Bank. Many now question how devoted Israeli leaders really are to the idea of achieving peace.

IRAQ: No Unemployment Among Gravediggers

Amidst the soaring unemployment in Iraq, the gravediggers have been busy. So busy that officials have no record of the number of graves dug; of the real death toll, that is.

MIDEAST: Politically, Hamas May Have Won

Despite declarations of victory by Israel, the military assault on the Gaza Strip failed to achieve its stated aims, many analysts say. The assault, and even its exceptional brutality, may only have vindicated the notion of resistance among the Arab public.

MIDEAST: So What Was the Assault All About

Just over a week before they go to the polls, Israelis are in a grim mood. The gloom is fed by the leading candidates, all of whom are seeking to outdo one another in sombre assessment of the challenges that lie ahead.

MIDEAST: What an Aid Worker Saw, Then and Now

As fears rise of renewed violence in Gaza, Elena Qleibo, a French-Costa Rican aid worker from Oxfam, gives IPS a first-hand account of surviving Israel's three-week bombardment of Gaza.

IRAQ: Elections Could be a Telling Signpost

After strong polling for the provincial elections Saturday, Iraqis are looking out for new signposts of political recovery from the U.S.-led invasion and occupation.

IRAQ: Threat of Violence Looms Again Over Fallujah

The threat of violence hangs over Fallujah again as leaders of the Awakening Council fight for political power through the elections Jan. 31.

MIDEAST: Mitchell Mission Risks Deja vu

At the start of his Middle East presidential mission, Senator George Mitchell has listened to President Barack Obama's recommendation earlier in the week on Al-Arabiya television that he "should start by listening, because ultimately we cannot tell Israelis and Palestinians what's best for them."

MIDEAST: Not Quite a Political Ceasefire Between Hamas and Fatah

Reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah is looking increasingly problematic as the two groups exchange serious accusations of treason, torture and extra-judicial killings.

IRAQ: Tentative Hope Rises Ahead of Elections

Uncertainty and tension are running high in Baghdad ahead of the provincial election due Jan. 31. But this time fears are also touched by a new hope.

MIDEAST: A Tale of Two Summits

Despite declarations of Arab unity at a recent economic summit, Egyptian commentators say that fundamental differences between rival Arab camps - especially over the issue of Palestine - are far from over.

Q&A: ‘Gaza Will Take Years to Recover’

Gaza will need years to recover from the devastating Israeli assault, says Katharina Ritz, head of mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Israel's 22-day assault left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead, and decimated much of the coastal territory's infrastructure.

MIDEAST: Unconventional Warfare on the Rise

Violent conflict is hardly new to the Middle East, but increasingly it is taking the form of unconventional warfare.

MIDEAST: Ceasefire Broken From Day One

At 7.30 am Jan. 22, five days after Israeli authorities declared a 'ceasefire' following their 22-day air, land and sea bombardment of the Gaza Strip, Israeli gunboats renewed shelling off the Gaza city coast, injuring at least six, including four children.

MIDEAST: Unexploded Bombs Hold More Deaths

At first the 44 children that live in the Zani family home in Beit Hanoun were wary of the unexploded F-16 rocket whose tail has protruded menacingly from their garden since it landed in the first week of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Now, they have grown used to it - playing excitedly near it and even building fires next to it, a relative says.

MIDEAST: Egypt ‘Not Bound’ by Anti-Smuggling Pact

The U.S. and Israel signed a memorandum of understanding last week ostensibly aimed at combating arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip. Egypt, however, which shares a 14-kilometre border with the embattled territory, rejected the accord as an infringement on its national sovereignty.

ISRAEL: Arab Parties Back in Contest

A sharp polarisation between Israeli Arab parties and the rest is expected to mark the upcoming elections Feb. 10.

MIDEAST: Alarm Spreads Over Use of Lethal New Weapons

Eighteen-year-old Mona Al-Ashkar says she did not immediately know the first explosion at the United Nations (UN) school in Beit Lahiya had blown her left leg off. There was smoke, then chaos, then the pain and disbelief set in once she realised it was gone - completely severed by the weapon that hit her.

MIDEAST: Move On From Conventional Wisdom

In his inauguration address Tuesday, U.S. President Barack Obama made no direct reference to Israel's three-week campaign in Gaza; nor did he mention the urgency of addressing the old bugbear of international relations - how successfully to forge a Palestinian-Israel peace.

MIDEAST: Too Many Pieces to Pick Up

A pillow, a belt, a child's school bag and pages of a torn copy of the Quran lie in the wreckage of the Al-Da'aa family home in Zeitoun, a neighbourhood of Gaza City. Twenty-four members of the family were killed when an F-16 fighter jet dropped a bomb on their house. Nine bodies still lie under what is now just a massive pancake of concrete, metal wires and death.

MIDEAST: Egypt Bent at the Border

Tens of thousands of houses inside the Gaza Strip were destroyed by air strikes and artillery during Israel's recently concluded military campaign. Areas along Egypt's border with the hapless enclave, meanwhile, have not been immune from the devastation.