November 27 at Annapolis kicks off the latest Israeli-Palestinian Middle East peace process round that may be an historic first. It's the first time in memory the legitimate government of one side is excluded, and that alone dooms it. Like previous rounds, it's more pretense than peace, and as Jonathan Steele puts it in his November 16 Guardian column "The Palestinian path to peace does not go via Annapolis... so what do... Palestinians do next...

Israeli troops killed three armed Palestinians on Sunday, one of them in a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank and two in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, officials on both sides said.

The United States is making a last minute effort to bridge the differences between the Israelis and the Palestinians ahead of the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas arrived in the United States late on Saturday to take part in an international Middle East peace conference that opens Tuesday in Annapolis, Maryland.

Israeli authorities are under fire after the death of a 21-year-old Palestinian man who was barred from leaving the Gaza Strip for cancer treatment in Israel.

Israel has authorized the supply of 25 armored vehicles to Palestinian security forces in the West Bank ahead of a Mideast peace conference, government officials said on Wednesday.

On November 27, the United States will host Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, along with the Members of the Quartet, the Members of the Arab League Follow-on Committee, the G-8, the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and other key international actors for a conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

Middle East Peace Quartet envoy Tony Blair has announced a number of industrial and business projects designed to revitalise the Palestinian economy.

Israel's prime minister has received cabinet approval to release 441 Palestinian prisoners ahead of next week's Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland. Mr. Olmert told his cabinet he plans to remove unauthorized settlements in the West Bank. As VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, Palestinians have criticized the prisoner release as inadequate.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has renounced all previous agreements with Israel on drafting a joint statement to be adopted at the upcoming Annapolis peace summit, the Haaretz newspaper said.

Hamas loyalists demonstrated in a Gaza City on Friday and warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that violence would erupt if he makes concessions to Israel in an upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made the first explicit demand for overthrow Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers.