Palestine

JERUSALEM (AP) -- An Israeli soldier the military feared had been abducted by Palestinian gunmen in a firefight that shattered a temporary ceasefire in Gaza has been declared dead, ending what could have been a nightmare scenario for Israel hours after it signaled it plans to scale back its operation against Hamas militants.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel won't participate in indirect cease-fire talks with Hamas for now and instead plans to scale back its 26-day-old military operation in Gaza on its own terms, Israeli officials and media reports said Saturday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration on Friday condemned violations of the internationally-brokered Gaza cease-fire by Palestinian militants and said the apparent abduction of an Israeli soldier was a "barbaric" action.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Israeli forces, backed by heavy tank fire and airstrikes, moved deeper into southern Gaza late Friday in search of a soldier apparently captured in a clash with Hamas militants earlier in the day. At least 62 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in the fierce fighting that quickly shattered a U.S.-brokered cease-fire.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State John Kerry is condemning an "outrageous" violation by Palestinian militants of the Gaza cease-fire he helped to broker. Kerry's demanding the immediate release of an Israeli soldier apparently abducted by the radical Hamas movement.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel will destroy Hamas' tunnel network in the Gaza Strip designed for deadly attacks inside Israel, "with or without a cease-fire," as the military called up another 16,000 reservists to pursue its campaign against Palestinian militants in the densely-populated territory.

GENEVA (AP) -- The U.N.'s top human rights official accused both Israel and Hamas militants of committing war crimes in the latest Gaza war, but reserved her harshest words for the Israeli government, which she said Thursday was deliberately defying international law.

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli strikes hit a crowded shopping area in Gaza City Wednesday, hours after tank shells tore through the walls of a U.N. school crowded with war refugees in the deadliest of a series of air and artillery attacks that pushed the Palestinian death toll above 1,300 in more than three weeks of fighting.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Israel's ambassador to the United States said Wednesday that criticism from within the Jewish state of Secretary of State John Kerry's peace-making efforts is traceable to Israel's "very rambunctious democracy" and not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

It's no surprise Noa Epstein worries about the safety of her husband, a reservist in the Israeli army called to duty as war smolders in the Gaza Strip. But, still carrying memories of a transformative summer camp experience nearly two decades ago, she knows there is another side to the conflict, and she is filled with concern for the Palestinians too.