News:
Israel strikes a number of sites in Gaza after a rocket lands near the Israeli port of Ashdod.(Reuters/Ma’an/PNN/JTA/Ha’
DM Ya’alon blames Islamic Jihad for the latest rocket fired at Israel. (AP/Ha’aretz/Times of Israel) PM Netanyahu says Hamas is responsible for all fire from Gaza. (Jerusalem Post) Hamas says they have arrested the Gaza rocket launchers. (Ynet) Egyptian officials demand that “Israel hold its aggression" and practice restraint toward Gaza. (Jerusalem Post) An Amnesty International report says Hamas committed war crimes against Palestinian civiliansin Gaza during last summer’s war. (Reuters/AP/New York Times/JTA/AFP/Ynet) Egypt reopens its Rafah border crossing with Gaza for two days. (AFP) Israeli occupation forces continue demolitions in the Silwan neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem. (Ma’an) Israeli forces shut down a checkpoint in the occupied West Bank. (Ma’an) Violations against female Palestinian journalists by Israeli military forces and Palestinian security forces have tripled since 2010. (Ma’an) Iraq’s Shi'ite paramilitaries say they had taken charge of the campaign to drive ISIS from thewestern province of Anbar. (Reuters/New York Times/Washington Post/The National) FM Zarif says the Yemen war will end up harming Saudi Arabia. (Reuters) UNSG Ban says he asked his Special Envoy to postpone Geneva peace talks planned for May 28. (Reuters/AP) Seven members of a Yemeni family are killed in an overnight strike by Saudi-led warplanes. (Reuters) A French diplomat says the P5+1 and Iran will probably miss an end-of-June deadline for a comprehensive nuclear agreement. (AP) Commentary: Israel Harel says yesterday’s Gaza rocket shows the “quiet isn’t so quiet.” (Ha’aretz) Avi Issacharoff says Hamas leaders have an interest in keeping things calm after yesterday’s flareup, but only to a certain extent. (Times of Israel) Ron Kampeas says on two-states, tensions between Pres. Obama and Netanyahu have calmed for now. (JTA) Raphael Ahren asks if Netanyahu is “two-faced” on the two-state solution. (Times of Israel) Neri Zilber says Israel’s coalition government is a shaky mess but Netanyahu’s “wheeling and dealing” have cemented his hold on power. (Foreign Policy) Ha’aretz says integrating Palestinian citizens of Israel into the planning agencies wouldn’t solve all the problems, but it would increase trust. (Ha’aretz) Linda Gradstein says Palestinians are planning to begin using solar, wind and geothermal power in an effort to cut their dependence on Israeli energy. (The Media Line) Hassan Hassan writes on responses to the mosque bombing in Saudi Arabia and and the soul-searching over radicalism and sectarianism it has engendered. (The National) Sholto Byrnes says It's time for the US to rethink its historical view of the Iraq invasion and its responsibilities. (The National) Abdul Rahman Al Rashed looks at Turkey’s recent involvement in the Syrian war. (Al Arabiya) Eyad Abu Shakra says a full year has passed since Lebanon’s presidency became vacant. (Asharq al-Awsat) Jamal Khashoggi looks a how a “Libyan Taif agreement” would look like. (Al Arabiya) The New York Times says Iran’s refusal to try a Washington Post reporter in public is the latest travesty in a shameful case. (New York Times)