Daily News Channel
For a disputed border crossing between two warring nations, the snowy hillside town of Majdal Shams is pretty quiet. There have been no major battles in the Golan Heights since the 1973 October War, when the Syrian army nearly recaptured the town from Israel, which had occupied the territory in the 1967 war. Instead of hostile fire, all that passes across the border these days are apple harvests and the occasional bride.
Israel will hit back at Palestinian-controlled Gaza with a "sharp, painful and strong response" if rocket attacks do not stop, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday. Rocket fire from Gaza, which is run by the militant Hamas movement, was the main reason cited for Israel’s three-week assault on the territory in December and January. The air and land campaign left about 1,300 Palestinians dead.
When Senator John Kerry visited Gaza last week, he made certain to emphasize that he had no contact with Hamas, and demanded that the militants stop firing rockets into Israel. Still, Kerry’s visit — one of the first to the coastal strip by an American legislator since Hamas took power there in 2007 — wasn’t exactly the kind of publicity that Israeli officials wanted.