Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and hard-line rival Benjamin Netanyahu both claimed victory in Israel’s parliamentary election Tuesday, which early returns suggested was too close to call.
With 67 percent of the votes counted, Livni’s centrist Kadima Party had 29 seats in the 120-seat parliament while Netanyahu’s hawkish Likud Party was right behind with 28, Israel’s Channel [...]

Palestinian militants detonated a bomb targeting an Israeli army patrol along the Gaza border, the Israeli military said, in the first violence since a cease-fire went into effect more than a week ago.
Heavy gunfire was audible along the border in central Gaza and Israeli helicopters hovered in the air, firing bursts from their machine guns, [...]

President Barack Obama’s special envoy to the Middle East will come to Israel Wednesday for talks on keeping alive a fragile Gaza cease-fire and reviving Mideast negotiations, an Israeli foreign ministry official said Saturday.
It is the new administration’s first direct move into Mideast peace efforts.
George J. Mitchell will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert [...]

Israel’s prime minister says the Israeli military fired artillery shells at a U.N. compound in Gaza after militants opened fire from the location.
Ehud Olmert says Israeli forces “were attacked from there and the response was harsh.”
U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon expressed “outrage” over the Israeli shelling of the compound Thursday.
At a meeting between the two, Olmert [...]

Egypt and Hamas were negotiating a proposal for a 10-day cease-fire in Gaza, officials said Wednesday, as the Palestinian death toll in the war passed 1,000 and smoke from Israeli airstrikes rose over Gaza City’s devastated streets.
Egyptian and Palestinian officials said they hoped to seal Hamas’ agreement on a temporary halt in fighting, which would [...]

Speaking to his Cabinet, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the country “is nearing” its goals, but that the offensive will continue despite global calls for a cease-fire, led by the U.N. Security Council.
Israel warned Gaza’s 1.4 million residents on Saturday that it plans to escalate a devastating air and ground assault that already has [...]