The announcement was welcomed by the Palestinian leadership as a "long-overdue step", but provoked an angry response by Israel.

During his final days, Diak‘s final plea �to die in my mother�s arms," was denied.

Gaza has also begun exporting strawberries to the UAE and Bahrain for the first time.

Over 600 residents have been arrested in the past six months of nightly raids in Issawiya, activists and locals are demanding an end to the violence.

General Secretary of the Palestinian National Initiative, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi parallels the appalling history of the defunct South African Apartheid system with similarities of what the Israeli rulers are doing in Palestine.