Israel
The fissure between Fatah, the Palestinian faction led by Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, the militant organization which claims the Gaza strip, has long haunted the state's bid for national unity.
Shortly after Palestine was declared a non-member observer state by the United Nations, Israel announced plans to construct 3,000 new settler homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
When Israel was birthed in 1948, neighboring Arab States went to war with the fledgling nation, resulting in 750,000 displaced Palestinian refugees, according to the UN
Only a day after the United Nations overwhelmingly recognized Palestine as a sovereign state, Israel approved the building of settlements in a contested area east of Jerusalem.
The United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize Palestine as a non-member observer state.
The United Nations could see a landmark day in terms of the relationship between Israel and Palestine.
A Palestinian bid to upgrade its status at the United Nations will go up for vote later this week.
One Palestinian is dead and 19 are wounded after Israeli soldiers fired on a group of Gazans who approached the border.
A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas took hold on Thursday with scenes of joy among the ruins in Gaza over what Palestinians hailed as a victory, and both sides saying their fingers were still on the trigger.
Israel and the Islamist militant group Hamas agreed on Wednesday to a Gaza ceasefire deal, said a Palestinian official with knowledge of Egyptian mediation between the two sides.
Israel is preparing its troops for a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, as the current exchange of rockets between the two neighboring lands enters its second week.
A bomb exploded on a bus in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, potentially complicating efforts by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pursue an elusive truce between Israel and Hamas, as Israeli air strikes shook the Gaza Strip.
There are murmurings of inevitable war, as the current exchange of rockets between Israel and the Gaza Strip heads into its second week.
Hillary Clinton is cutting short her Asia trip with President Obama to head to the Middle East to join peace talks, already in progress.
Egypt's president predicted on Tuesday that Israel's Gaza offensive would end later in the day, Egyptian state media said, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed to the region to try to calm the conflict.
