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Violence also erupted elsewhere in the Middle East today. Israeli helicopter gunships launched attacks against Palestinian targets. Among the targets: the headquarters of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in Gaza City. Arafat was not injured. Israel says the attacks are in retaliation for the killing of Israeli soldiers. Three soldiers had made a wrong turn into Palestinian territory, and sought refuge at Palestinian police station. But a mob of hundreds of Palestinians surrounded the building, and beat at least two of the soldiers to death. Mike Shuster of NPR News talks to host Robert Siegel about the incidents.

Most Israelis view Gaza as hostile territory ruled by a terrorist group, Hamas, committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. Though cross-border violence has subsided recently, Israelis still feel under attack and remain in a state of hyper-vigilance.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden in Gaza reports another cease-fire between the Israelis and Palestinians failed to stem the violence raging throughout the Palestinian territories. There were gun battles near an Israeli settlement in Gaza and in at least one town in the West Bank. Israeli troops clashed with stone-throwing demonstrators in other areas.

The shots — the first that Israel has fired at Syria since the 1973 Yom Kippur War — come just days after a Syrian mortar shell hit a target inside the Israel-occupied Golan Heights. Israel noted the Syrian firing was part of that country's civil war. Separately, Israel also said it was ready to respond to a barrage of rocket fire from Gaza.

In the Gaza Strip there are no functioning courts and most of the Fatah-backed police force refuses to return to work. But Hamas, now the territory's sole power, has moved quickly to try to restore internal law and order after removing its rival faction just over two weeks ago.

The Palestinian militant group Hamas controls most of the Gaza Strip and is declaring victory after five days of intense fighting with members of the rival Fatah movement.

Hadi Abushahla moved from London to Gaza four years ago to open a computer store. In the latest in a series of stories about the entrepreneur, we explore the difficult transition for Abushahla's family.

NPR's Ailsa Chang speaks with Ainsley Harris, senior writer at Fast Company, about the accelerated rollout of delivery robots and how they're being received in communities across the country.

NPR Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr says lots of things are going poorly in the Middle East -- like the Iraq constitution process and the pullout from Gaza. But he can point to one positive development: the deal to save the Gaza greenhouses.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Authority officials call for orderly celebrations as the withdrawal of Jewish settlers begins. But the Islamist Hamas movement calls the pullout a "victory for the armed resistance."

Intense fighting is still being reported throughout the Gaza Strip. Israeli forces are pushing deeper into neighborhoods in southern and eastern Gaza City. Witnesses say large groups of civilians in the south are fleeing their homes as Israeli ground troops, backed by attack helicopters, search the area for Hamas fighters.

BBC correspondent Alan Johnston, who was abducted in the Gaza Strip earlier this year and held for nearly four months, writes a book about his ordeal. Kidnapped: And Other Dispatches describes his ordeal. He says a radio brought by guards offered a lifeline and psychological boost.