JERUSALEM - Six months after the end of the most recent war in Gaza, there is still a "grave humanitarian crisis" in the narrow strip wedged between the Egyptian and Israeli borders, where more than 1.8 million Palestinians live closed off to the world because of an international embargo.

JERUSALEM - Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal strongly denounced the increasing wave of violent retaliations following the murders of Israeli and Palestinian teens and called on political and religious leaders to act to calm the atmosphere.