An Islamic court judge linked to Hamas was gunned down in front of the courthouse in Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday. 30-year old Bassam Al-Fara was killed in a drive-by shooting. Clashes between armed Fatah and Hamas members have become more frequent since the three young sons of a Fatah security official were killed in a barrage of gunfire as they were being dropped off at school on Monday.

In his final address as Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Anan admonished that both the Israelis and Palestinians are responsible for the situation. He criticized Israeli military operations in densely populated areas, saying that the tactic, "only produces more death, destruction, recrimination and revenge…And as we have seen, it does little to achieve the desired goal of stopping terrorist attacks." Anan warned the Palestinians that they will never achieve the goal of statehood unless they renounce violence, saying, "No resistance to occupation can justify terrorism." In what surprised some pro-Israeli observers, Anan acknowledged criticism of the U.N. for a perceived "double-standard" applied against Israel, but warned Israel's critics not to apply standards to the Jewish state they would not be willing to apply to others. Anan observed that, "tensions in the region are near the breaking-point."

Five Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in Israel on Tuesday, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to warn that it's becoming "harder and harder to resist" retaliating. Although it brings to more than 20 the number of rockets fired since a ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinian factions in Gaza went into effect more than two weeks ago, they were the first rockets fired in a week. Israeli army spokesmen noted that Hamas is making a strong effort to prevent its members from violating the ceasefire.

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has let President Bush know that if a war between Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites erupts as the result of the American-led coalition withdrawing from Iraq, the Saudis will back the Sunnis. The message was received by Vice President Dick Cheney when he visited Iraq two weeks ago. Abdullah let it be known that he is unhappy with talk of American efforts to engage Iran. The Saudis and Iraqi Sunnis fear growing Iranian influence in Iraq which, when seen in the context of the Iranian nuclear program, is potentially disastrous in their eyes. A similar fear that the Iraqi army would be used against the Sunni population if Shiites gain control was recently expressed by Jordan's King Abdallah II. The Bush administration has been trying to create a coalition of what it calls "moderate Sunnis" and "centrist Shiites" to govern Iraq. It's part of a larger regional plan to form an alliance of Sunni nations including a "moderate Shiite government in Iraq" to stand in opposition to "Iran, Syria and the terrorists."