In a statement to the news media, Ismail Jaber, the Gaza prosecutor general, said on July 25, 2013, that he had ordered the closure of the Gaza offices of the regional broadcaster al-Arabiya and the Ma’an News Agency, a Palestinian outlet, because they had “fabricat[ed] news and diffused false rumors and baseless information, threatening civil peace and harming the Palestinian people and their resistance.” The two outlets had broadcast and published reports implicating Hamas in supporting the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

“If the Gaza authorities think that these news outlets have misrepresented them, it should be easy enough to provide accurate information and debunk their stories, but they shouldn’t just shut down their critics,” said Tom Porteous, deputy program director at Human Rights Watch. “These actions do not square with Gaza authorities’ claims to respect media freedom.”

The prosecutor general closed al-Arabiya’s office “for distributing false news regarding the smear campaign against Hamas and Gaza about what’s happening in Egypt,” Agence France Presse reported on July 25, citing an unnamed Hamas official. Al Resalah, a pro-Hamas newspaper, quoted a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, as stating that al-Arabiya “aims to distort the image of the Palestinian resistance by means of lying to the Egyptian people that the Palestinians are involved in the turmoil in Egypt.”

Egyptian officials and media have alleged that Hamas fighters helped senior members of the Muslim Brotherhood escape from Egypt’s Wati Natroun prison during the January 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak’s rule.

At about 4:30 p.m. on July 25, police detectives from the General Investigation Department arrived at the offices of al-Arabiya in the Rimal neighborhood of Gaza City and said that they had an order from the prosecutor general to close the office, that they would arrest anyone entering it, and that no one should remove any of its contents, al-Arabiya staff told Human Rights Watch.

“The detectives didn’t give us a copy of the order,” the bureau chief, Islam Abdul Karim, told Human Rights Watch. “We were surprised, but two days previously Hamas had issued statements against al-Arabiya, so maybe we shouldn’t have been.” He said that police detectives told him the closure order was “temporary” but did not say how long the office would be closed. Al-Arabiya had not yet decided whether to file a legal appeal against the order, he said. “First we will try to give diplomacy a chance,” he said. Eleven people work in the office.

Ma’an News reported that “officials from the Ministry of Information and security forces” closed its Gaza office and questioned its bureau chief there about a July 24 article. The article cited an Israeli news report that six Muslim Brotherhood officials from Egypt had “smuggled themselves into Gaza to plan an uprising against the [Egyptian] military” on behalf of deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsy, the head of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s political party. Ma’an News reported that it had complained to the office of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh and the Information Ministry.

Police detectives also refused to provide staff of Ma’an News with a copy of the prosecutor general’s closure order, staff told Human Rights Watch. A lawyer for Ma’an News, Shawqi Aissa, told Human Rights Watch that he had not seen the order but hoped to learn more details on July 28 or 29.

Ma’an News quoted an unnamed Hamas official as saying the Gaza government had ordered its closure because it considered that the news agency “deliberately publishes false news reports seeking to incite against Gaza” and was “complicit with Egyptian media outlets in incitement against the Strip and making up lies to harm the image of Palestinian resistance.”

The prosecutor general said the closure orders against al-Arabiya and Ma’an News were “temporary,” but did not specify when the two media offices could reopen.

The prosecutor general also ordered police to close a Gaza media production company, Lens, because it had provided broadcast services to I24 News, a channel based in Israel. Human Rights Watch is investigating whether the closure violated the Gaza government’s pledges to uphold human rights norms.

The New York Times reported that a Lens employee had said the head of the Gaza government’s media office told him on July 25 that Lens was violating a government decision in January to bar Palestinians in Gaza from working with Israeli news organizations.

The Hamas-run Gaza government is not internationally recognized as a state and therefore cannot ratify international human rights treaties, but it has repeatedly pledged to uphold human rights standards, including freedom of the press.

Under human rights law, everyone is ensured the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds. Governments may restrict the content of what the media can broadcast or print but only in narrow and clearly prescribed circumstances, for reasons of national security, public order, or public health or morals. The United Nations Human Rights Committee stated in a general comment that restrictions on the right to freedom of expression must be “provided by law,” may only be imposed for a legitimate reason, and must conform to the strict tests of necessity and proportionality.

“Governments don’t have the right to shut down news outlets just because they dispute the accuracy of a story,” said CPJ’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour. “The Hamas government should immediately allow Al-Arabiya and Maan to resume their operations.”

Ismail Jaber, the attorney general, said the outlets reported “fabricated news” that “threatened civil peace and damaged the Palestinian people and their resistance” to Israel, according to a statement published by the Hamas government’s media office today. Jaber described the shutdown as temporary, although the order did not specify when the offices will be allowed to resume operations.

Maan, headquartered in the West Bank, and Al-Arabiya, based in Saudi Arabia, often carry critical coverage of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Hamas statement cited an article that Maan published on Wednesday that said Muslim Brotherhood leaders had fled to Gaza to organize activities in support of ousted Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi. The article cited Israeli sources. In a report on Maan’s website, Nasser Lahham, the agency’s editor-in-chief, stood by the agency’s story.

The statement did not specify a particular Al-Arabiya article, but The New York Times said that Al-Arabiya had reported a similar story. Al-Arabiya said on Thursday that security forces had told its staff that anyone who tried to work in the office would be arrested.

Hamas authorities also shut down Lens, a local Palestinian media production company, on Thursday, according to news reports. The New York Times cited an anonymous Lens employee who said that the Hamas government had shut it down because it allegedly worked with i24, a new Israeli satellite station launched this month looking to emulate the success of global broadcasters like Al-Jazeera. Palestinian journalists in Gaza are barred from working with Israeli media.

Egyptians braced for a showdown after Friday prayers as Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of Egypt’s military, called for mass demonstrations Friday to support the country’s armed forces.

On the other hand, people joined thousands of Mursi supporters amid calls by the Muslim brotherhood for a million-man march under the title “bringing down the coup.”

Pro-Mursi supporters have been rallying against his overthrow and holding demonstrations since July 3.

In a related development on Friday, Egypt’s state prosecutor has ordered that ousted President Mohamed Mursi be detained for questioning over suspected cooperation with Hamas, official MENA news agency reported.

Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-Moon urged the interim authorities to release Mursi and Muslim Brotherhood leaders currently in detention or have their cases reviewed transparently without delay, deputy UN spokesman Eduardo del Buey said.

Speaking at a press conference in Geneva today, the spokesperson for UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stressed that it is extremely important that security forces in Egypt do not resort to excessive use of force.

The crisis in the country escalated earlier this month, resulting in the Egyptian military deposing President Mohamed Mursi amid widespread protests in which dozens of people were killed and wounded. The Constitution was then suspended and an interim government set up.

This comes amid reports that Israel will release a small number of prisoners as per Palestinian condition to restart negotiations. Israeli official sources announced that 80 prisoners most of them imprisoned prior to Oslo accord will be released. This came as the Palestinian Authority (PA) demanded this step as a condition to resume frozen negotiations.

UFree, however,  calls on releasing all Palestinian prisoners and not only a limited number.

“The peace process has always proved a dishonest intention from the Israeli side as more thousands have been imprisoned since Oslo accord signed in 1993 between Israel and PA,” UFree said in a statement.

Khaled Waleed, UFree coordinator said in a press statement that Israel is demanded to release all prisoners as “a goodwill for true peace”.

“Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are in Israeli jails under made-up accusations and have been persecuted illegally. This includes women, children and sick prisoners. The continuation of detaining those segments of prisoners is illegal as per international law, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” stated Waleed.

In the same context, the family of Dirar Abu Sisi, who was kidnapped in Ukraine over 2 years ago, called on the Palestinian Authority to include Dirar within the list of names predicted to be freed. Abu sisi has been subject to constant torture and interrogation which caused him health complications.

Al-Hamadallah, a linguistics professor of Nablus’ Al-Najah University, was assigned by Abbas at a meeting at his headquarters in Ramallah Sunday to form a new government, adding that Al-Hamdallah accepted the designation.

“President Abbas has asked me to form a new government and I have accepted,” Hamdallah, 54, a member of Abbas’s Fatah party who has also headed the Palestinian Stock Exchange, told the AFP news agency.

“The government will be formed in the coming days. Most ministers of the outgoing government will stay and I will bring in a new finance minister,” he added.

This move follows the resignation of former government’s Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in April after months of tension with Abbas.

Hamdallah, received a PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Lancaster in the United Kingdom and has been president of An-Najah University since 1998. He has also served as the secretary general of the  central elections commission since 2002.

In the wake of Fayyad’s resignation, Haaretz reported the leading candidates to replace him were Hamdallah and Mohammad Mustafa, head of the national investment fund but according to sources close to Abbas told Haaretz Sunday night that Mustafa would probably be appointed Hamdallah’s deputy.

Hamdallah’s appointment comes as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last week urged Israelis and Palestinians to renew peace negotiations.

“Israel Air Force aircraft targeted two terror sites in the Gaza Strip this morning (Sunday, April 28). The targets were a terrorist weapon storage facility and a Hamas training compound in southern Gaza. Direct hits on the targets were confirmed,” the military said in a statement.

“The sites were targeted in response to rocket fire from Gaza directed at civilian communities in southern Israel,” the statement added.

The Israeli authorities also closed on Sunday until further notice the Kerem Shalom goods crossing following, the defence ministry said.

On Saturday, thousands of Israelis had been outside in parks and forests celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer with traditional bonfires when the rockets exploded in open areas and caused no injuries, according to AP.

Rocket fire from Gaza has declined since an Egyptian-borkered truce in November ended an eight-day conflict between Israel and militants of Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the territory.

On April 19, two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip hit southern Israel without causing any casualties or damage.

The military said it “will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will not allow for a return to the reality before Pillar of Defense where Israeli civilians are threatened. Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terror activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.”

Officials say the majority of the group’s Shura council members voted for him.

Mashaal had previously indicated he would not seek another term, but officials told Maan news agency that Arab and Palestinian figures asked him to seek the top spot once again.

The 56-year-old has headed the political bureau of Hamas since 1996.

His re-election could revive stalled reconciliation efforts between Hamas and political rival Mahmoud Abbas, AP says.

Hamas seized the Gaza Strip in 2007, leaving Abbas with a self-rule government, the Palestinian Authority, in parts of the West Bank. Both sides have become entrenched in their territories, hampering reconciliation.

Meshaal, set foot in Gaza for the first time in December since leaving the West Bank in 1967.

Meshaal ran the group from exile in Damascus from 2004 a few months before he left the Syrian capital because of unrest in Syria and to avoid pressure from Syrian authorities to side himself with President bashar al-Assad, according to sources. He now divides his time between Qatar and Cairo.

Hamas continues with its view that it will not recognize the Jewish state officially, and it is viewed as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and most Western governments.

The rocket, which landed in Ashkelon, reportedly caused some damage but no injuries. It marks the first breach of the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement of 21 November, which brought an end to eight days of violence in Gaza and Israel.

Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, said he was “deeply troubled” by resumed indiscriminate rocket fire from Gaza, which is “totally unacceptable.”

Today’s developments, according to a statement issued by Mr. Serry’s office, only underscore the importance of ongoing Egyptian efforts to solidify the truce brokered last November.

In his briefing to the Security Council, Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman also underscored the “troubling” nature of today’s incident and stressed the need to inject new life in the political process aimed at reaching a two-State solution.

“We know that there are negative forces on both sides, such as those who fired today’s rocket from Gaza into Israel, who draw strength from stalemate and paralysis,” he stated, adding that both sides have a responsibility to marginalize these forces by creating the conditions, including trust, for a successful negotiating process.

“As demonstrated today in the troubling rocket attack fired from Gaza into Israel, the temperature is again rising between Israelis and Palestinians – with the situation of Palestinian prisoners the most immediate but not only cause – and there is yet no process of negotiation to offer hope on the horizon.”

The UN continues to follow the issue of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody, and had voiced concern at the news of the death on Saturday in Israeli detention of Arafat Jaradat. Yesterday, Mr. Serry called for an independent and transparent investigation into the circumstances of Mr. Jaradat’s death, which occurred just a few days after his arrest.

Mr. Feltman described as “a most troubling development” that, earlier today, Gaza militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade cited this death in claiming responsibility for the rocket attack. The prisoner’s death has also sparked a series of demonstrations and clashes, which have reportedly resulted in the injuries of 43 Palestinians by Israeli security forces.

It is a moment of “heightened risks across multiple fronts” in the Middle East, the Under-Secretary-General pointed out, noting that Syria continues to be a source of “extreme concern” for the world body.

The nearly-two-year-old conflict has left over 4 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 2 million internally displaced, and led more than 900,000 people to flee to neighbouring countries, including over 150,000 this month alone, he stated.

“Even tentative steps to dialogue are struggling to take root,” Mr. Feltman added. “The destructive military spiral churns more forcefully each day and threatens to pull its neighbours, most notably and worrisomely Lebanon, into its vortex.

“Opportunities do exist to reverse these trends, but not if the international community sits still. Stepped up efforts by this Council and its members can make a substantial difference while there is still time to do so.”

Tens of thousands are expected to attend the rally marking the founding of the Islamist movement and celebrating victory against the Israeli forces that ended days of violence between Hamas-run Gaza and Israel last month.

Israel rejects Hamas’s assertion that it won the eight-day conflict, which left 170 Palestinians and six Israelis dead and was ended by an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.

Mashaal’s speech is expected to push for reconciliation with his rival Fatah movement during, according to Maan news agency.

“Meshaal’s speech will outline the priorities of the Hamas movement in the future, and especially the implementation of reconciliation with Fatah,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

A delegation representing Fatah is scheduled to attend the anniversary events for the first time since the 2007 fighting between both parties, Maan new reported.

Meshaal, 56, Meshaal has not set foot in Gaza home to 1.7 million Palestinians since leaving the West Bank in 1967. His visit The Islamist militant group has governed Gaza since 2007.

Meshaal ran the group from exile in Damascus from 2004 a few months beforewhen he left the Syrian capital because of unrest in Syria. He now divides his time between Qatar and Cairo.

Hamas continues with its view that it will not recognize the Jewish state officially, and it is viewed as a terrorist group by Israel, the United States and most Western governments.

The resolution on the status of Palestine in the UN was adopted by a vote of 138 in favour to nine against with 41 abstentions by the 193-member Assembly.

“We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a State established years ago, and that is Israel; rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of the State that must now achieve its independence, and that is Palestine,” the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, told the Assembly before the vote.

Mr. Abbas noted that the world was being asked today to undertake a significant step in the process of rectifying the “unprecedented historical injustice” inflicted on the Palestinian people since 1948.

“Your support for our endeavour today,” he said, “will send a promising message – to millions of Palestinians on the land of Palestine, in the refugee camps both in the homeland and the Diaspora, and to the prisoners struggling for freedom in Israel’s prisons – that justice is possible and that there is a reason to be hopeful and that the peoples of the world do not accept the continuation of the occupation.”

Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, said his delegation could not accept today’s resolution. “Because this resolution is so one-sided, it doesn’t advance peace, it pushes it backwards,” he stated, adding that peace could only be achieved through negotiations.

“There’s only one route to Palestinian statehood and that route does not run through this chamber in New York. That route runs through direct negotiations between Jerusalem and Ramallah that will lead to a secure and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he added. “There are no shortcuts. No quick fixes. No instant solutions.”

The Israelis and Palestinians have yet to resume direct negotiations since talks stalled in September 2010, after Israel refused to extend its freeze on settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory.

“Today’s vote underscores the urgency of a resumption of meaningful negotiations,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the vote was finalized. “We must give new impetus to our collective efforts to ensure that an independent, sovereign, democratic, contiguous and viable State of Palestine lives side by side with a secure State of Israel. I urge the parties to renew their commitment to a negotiated peace.”

Addressing the same gathering, the President of the General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic, appealed to “my dear friends from Palestine and Israel” to work for peace, to negotiate in good faith, and ultimately, to succeed in reaching the historical settlement.

“I have no doubt that history will judge this day to have been fraught with significance – but whether it will come to be looked upon as a step in the right direction on the road to peace will depend on how we bear ourselves in its wake,” he said. “Let us therefore have the wisdom to act in furtherance of the goal I’m sure we all share.”

In the resolution, the Assembly also voiced the hope that the Security Council will “consider favourably” the application submitted in September 2011 by Palestine for full UN membership.

The Palestinian bid for full UN membership stalled last year when the 15-nation Council, which decides whether or not to recommend admission by the Assembly, said it had been “unable to make a unanimous recommendation.”

Today’s action comes on the same day that the UN observed the annual International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Established in 1977, the Day marks the date in 1947 when the Assembly adopted a resolution partitioning then-mandated Palestine into two States, one Jewish and one Arab.