Islam

Israeli forces backed by tanks and warplanes July 18 pushed into the edges of Gaza in a major operation to destroy Hamas tunnels that the Palestinian Islamist group warned was doomed to fail.

Turkey and Qatar are forging a plan to produce a truce between Palestinian groups and Israel to end 10 days of violence in Gaza amid additional efforts from Cairo.

Meanwhile, an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said his country and Hamas “have agreed on a cease-fire” that would begin on July 18, but Hamas denied the report.

Israeli prosecutors indicted three Jews on July 17 over the kidnapping and murder of a Palestinian teenager who was burned to death this month, the justice ministry said.

The identity of those charged was not disclosed by the ministry, which simply stated that one was a 29-year-old from the West Bank settlement of Adam.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has dismissed Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s accusations that Turkey and Qatar attempted to “sabotage” the Gaza cease-fire proposal drafted in Egypt.

“I have never taken the Israeli foreign minister [Lieberman] seriously,” Davutoğlu said on July 17 in a televised interview.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has accused Turkey and Qatar of sabotaging the Gaza cease-fire proposal drafted by Egypt.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is once again expressing righteous fury at Israel over Gaza and at the United Nations for its inability to do anything. He is also angry at Muslim countries for simple watching as Israel bombs rain down on Gaza during the holy month of Ramadan.

The prolonged problem of the Middle East, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was propelled to the top of the world agenda two weeks ago with yet another round of senseless killings. The chain of events started with the abduction on June 12 and later killing of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank and the subsequent revenge killing of a Palestinian teenager in Jerusalem on July 3.

Members of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) attacked a Shiite mosque in Istanbul last week, a human rights association has claimed in report, refuting official statements about the incident.

A crowd protested a fast-breaking dinner organized in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır by the U.S. consulate in Adana for Ramadan on July 15, attacking the tent where the food was prepared and served.

Seven people, including a police officer, were injured during the scuffles that erupted after the group’s attack. Two of the injured underwent surgery.

Israel on July 16 warned 100,000 Gazans to flee their homes, as the military intensified its nine-day air campaign after Hamas snubbed an Egyptian ceasefire effort.