MAP News provides latest round the clock updates of all major stories that impact on the lives of Palestinians across the Middle East. Will staff on the ground in offices in Beirut, Ramallah, Gaza and London we are able to provide expert analysis and comment on events.

Food labels advice change over Palestinian territories

11 December 2009
BBC - UK food labels are set to distinguish between goods from Palestinians in the occupied territories and produce from Israeli settlements. Food packaging guidelines advise a change from labels...

Israel seals Gaza borders

11 December 2009
Ma'an - Israeli forces decided on to close all goods crossing points into the Gaza Strip on Friday, a Palestinian official said. Borders official Raed Fattouh told Ma'an that Israel...

Palestinians fake cancer to flee blockaded Gaza

10 December 2009
AP - A healthy man in blockaded Gaza faked cancer, hoping the deadly disease would be his ticket out of the territory that has become an open-air prison for...

Egypt starts building steel wall on Gaza Strip border

10 December 2009
BBC - Egypt has begun constructing a huge metal wall along its border with the Gaza Strip as it attempts to cut smuggling tunnels, the BBC has learned. When it...

EU Position on Gaza

9 December 2009
Gravely concerned about the situation in Gaza, the Council urges the full implementation of UNSCR 1860 and the full respect of international humanitarian law. In this context, the continued...

EU: Jerusalem should be capital to two states

8 December 2009
BBC - European Union ministers have called for Jerusalem to serve as the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state as part of a negotiated peace. The foreign...

Gaza swine flu outbreak kills three

8 December 2009
BBC - Three people have died from swine flu in the Gaza Strip, the Hamas-run health ministry has revealed. A baby and two women were confirmed as the fist deaths...

Peace must begin with the plight of Palestine's refugees

8 December 2009
Karen AbuZayd - Sixty years ago today the United Nations general assembly voted into existence a temporary body known as UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. UNRWA's task...

Mental health center opens in Palestine

7 December 2009
Ma'an - The Mental Health Families and Friends Society opened its office on Monday, after being officially registered by the Palestinian Authority as a non-profit, non-governmental organization. The Society, in...

Lebanon's Palestinians: refugees for life

7 December 2009
AFP,BEIRUT - Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's visit to Beirut on Monday casts the spotlight on the plight of nearly 300,000 Palestinians in Lebanon who fear they are doomed to...

Swine flu arrives in Gaza, UN warns of vaccine shortage

7 December 2009
AP - Gaza health officials on Sunday confirmed the territory's first five cases of swine flu, but the World Health Organization said there is not enough vaccine for health...

Interrogating medical patients from Gaza

7 December 2009
The Guardian - Israeli security agents held a Palestinian patient for three weeks without charge, interrogated him repeatedly and offered access to hospital care if he agreed to become...

Christmas Appeal for the Children of Gaza

3 December 2009
We gave our promise to end the pain of Gaza's children Please help us keep our promise The war on Gaza exacerbated a humanitarian situation that was already critical. Childhoods are...

Israeli ground forces invade southern Gaza

3 December 2009
Ma'an - Three Israeli tanks and a bulldozer invaded the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, according to witnesses. Palestinians said the vehicles carried out a sweep of the area...

UNRWA budget to hit zero by new year

2 December 2009
Maan - The UNRWA budget will reach zero by the New Year and threaten the regular payment of salaries for UNRWA workers as well as the level of services...

Thousands in East Jerusalem lost residency rights

2 December 2009
Maan - Israel's Interior Ministry stripped 4,577 Palestinians of their right to live in East Jerusalem last year, an all time record in 42 years of occupation. The Israeli newspaper...

Lebanon: Refugees Remain Sceptical of Nahr al-Bared Reconstruction

1 December 2009
IPS - Ray Smith - More than two years after their refugee camp was destroyed in a war between the Lebanese army and the Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam,...

Two Gaza crossings sealed; no fuel delivered

1 December 2009
Maan News - Israeli authorities opened the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Gaza on Tuesday, while the Karni and Nahal Oz crossings remained closed on Tuesday. Palestinian crossings official, Raed...

Report: Refugees in Lebanon to receive PA passports

30 November 2009
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon may be issued passports from the Palestinian Authority, the Beirut-based Elaph reported. Lebanese officials expect President Mahmoud Abbas to visit the country in the coming days...

No easy settlement for West Bank tensions

30 November 2009
BBC - Alan Johnston makes his first visit to the Palestinian territories since his kidnap two years ago, and finds that the building of Israeli settlements on the West...