GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are used to violence, but not the brutal murder of a foreign sympathiser shown blindfolded in the hours before his execution.

Hamas, which runs the enclave, espouses an Islamist agenda focussed on the Palestinian nationalist conflict with Israel. So, unlike Islamists in Iraq, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia who have kidnapped and killed Westerners, Hamas’s leadership has sought to build support and sympathy for its cause in the West.

GAZA (Reuters) – Security personnel found the body of a pro-Palestinian activist from Italy who was killed and left in an abandoned house in the Gaza Strip following his abduction by militants, a Hamas official said on Friday.

Two men were arrested and others were being sought in the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, the security official added.

GAZA (Reuters) – Security personnel found the body of an Italian peace campaigner who was killed and left in an abandoned house in the Gaza Strip following his abduction by militants, a Hamas official said on Friday.

Two men were arrested and others were being sought in the killing of Vittorio Arrigoni, the security official added.

GAZA (Reuters) – A Jihadist group in the Gaza Strip aligned with al Qaeda threatened on Thursday to execute an abducted Italian it is holding within hours, unless Hamas Islamists release the group’s leader.

A You Tube clip the group posted on Thursday said the man they were holding, Vittorio Arrigoni, would be killed on Friday at 5 p.m. local time (10 a.m. EST) unless Hamas releases Hesham al-Sa’eedni, whom it detained last month.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Reuters) – Five thousand years of fascinating history lie beneath the sands of the Gaza Strip, from blinded biblical hero Samson to British general Allenby.

The flat, sandy lands on the Mediterranean’s southeastern shore have been ruled by Ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders.

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza (Reuters) – Five thousand years of fascinating history lie beneath the sands of the Gaza Strip, from blinded biblical hero Samson to British general Allenby.

The flat, sandy lands on the Mediterranean’s southeastern shore have been ruled by Ancient Egyptians, Philistines, Romans, Byzantines and Crusaders.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel kept a commercial crossing with Hamas-ruled Gaza shut for a seventh day Tuesday although a truce had stopped cross-border fighting, and a UN official said he was “extremely worried” essential supplies may run out.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) which provides aid to more than two thirds of Gaza’s population of 1.5 million, said 172 truckloads of oil, sugar and flour were waiting to cross into the impoverished coastal territory.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel and the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers signaled on Sunday they were looking to end a flare-up in violence that began four days ago with a missile attack on an Israeli school bus and has claimed the lives of 19 Palestinians.

The fighting stoked fears of a larger escalation that could include an Israeli ground incursion into the coastal territory, reminiscent of a Gaza war that erupted in late 2008.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel killed five Palestinian militants in a third straight day of air raids across the Gaza Strip while militants fired dozens of rockets and mortars at Israel, defying the efforts of mediators to stem the violence.

The death toll since Israel launched its retaliation for an attack on a school bus that critically wounded a teenager on Thursday climbed to 19 Palestinian militants and civilians.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel killed four Palestinian militants and wounded half a dozen others as it pursued air raids in Gaza for a third day on Saturday, responding to increased rocket fire out of the territory, local medics said.

Militants in the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamist Hamas, continued striking Israel’s south with rockets, wounding five Israelis at around daybreak, according to Israeli media reports.