As Israel moves toward another election on 22 January 2013, a right-wing Israeli government has announced even more colonial expansion projects in recent days. To better understand the reasoning behind this move, you have to understand the relationship Israeli political parties have with the settlement enterprise and the overlapping political interests they share. 

Amidst thunderous applause - and the ceremonious unfurling of a Palestinian flag in the General Assembly hall - the U.N.'s highest policy-making body Thursday voted overwhelmingly to elevate Palestine from an "observer" to a "non-member state". The final vote was 138 in favour against nine opposed, with 41 abstentions. 

Israeli forces on Wednesday shot and injured seven Palestinians near the border in the central Gaza Strip, medics said. Seven people were shot at east of al-Maghazi and al-Bureij refugee camps and transferred to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. One man sustained serious injuries, medical officials told Ma'an. An Israeli military spokeswoman said "rioters" damaged the border fence and tried to enter Israel. She said soldiers acted to distance them "according to the rules of engagement" which can include opening fire. 

My two-year-old nephew Omar had been confined to a small apartment with six other screaming children and their families since Israel began its bombardment of the Gaza Strip eight days ago. Shortly after a ceasefire was announced on Wednesday, he and his parents returned to our family home in Bait Lahia. My mother, who I spoke to over the phone, said that the first thing that Omar did was rush up the stairs in search of his most prized possession: his bike. 

Farmers on their way to sell vegetables in the marketplace, vendors of purified drinking water and people who just happened to live too close to the targets of Israeli air strikes were among the 34 Palestinians estimated to have been killed in Israel Defense Forces attacks in the past two days alone.  

Israeli air strikes for the past 6 days have killed over 100 Palestinians in Gaza, many of them women and children; one strike deliberately targeted a media building that Israeli government knew to house journalists. Medics announced Monday that they are running out of key medicines (Gaza is under Israeli blockade). Military strikes are also interfering in the delivery of medical and other aid by international organizations in the Strip. 

Dozens of Israeli tanks slowly made their way south on the back of flatbed trucks along Israel's Road 6 highway Sunday. Emblazoned with Stars of David and Hebrew letters, and carrying frayed Israeli flags, the movement of these tanks has left many believing that Israel will soon launch a large-scale ground operation into the Gaza Strip. "I see (the tanks) every day. It hurts me because I know they are going to kill children," 20-year-old Mohammad Eghbariya told IPS at the computer store where he works in Umm Al-Fahm, a Palestinian city in Israel's northern triangle area. 

An Israeli airstrike on a home in the northern Gaza Strip killed a family of four on Monday evening, as Israel shelled the coastal enclave for a sixth day. Four-year-old twin boys Suhaib and Muhammad were killed instantly when their home in Beit Lahiya was hit by an airstrike. Their parents Foad Hijazi and Amna Hijazi died in hospital. Eighteen people were reported injured in the attack.