Escalating violence

last updated 8 January 2015

Gaza

Palestinian militants took several Europeans and at least one American hostage this week in an eruption of violence in the West Bank and Gaza. Militants torched a British cultural center and raided an American school and other foreign sites. The Palestinians were furious at the U.K. and U.S. for allowing Israeli forces to blast into a Palestinian prison and bulldoze the walls to seize several prisoners convicted of killing an Israeli minister. British and American monitors guarding the prison had just withdrawn, citing Palestinian failure to maintain proper security. Israel said it believed the new Hamas government would release the prisoners.