JERUSALEM: Israeli forces set up roadblocks and deployed around a major Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday in a manhunt for attackers who shot dead an Israeli settler.
Raziel Shevah, a 35-year-old rabbi, was killed late Tuesday while driving near the wildcat settlement where he lived, Havat Gilad near the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
Some 22 gunshots were found in his car, Israel’s army radio reported. The gunshots reportedly came from a passing vehicle.
“Entrances and exits to and from the villages surrounding Nablus will be possible only after security checks,” the military said in a statement.
“The review of the incident is ongoing. Based on situation assessments, it was decided to reinforce the area with additional forces.”
The area frequently sees tensions between hard-line Israeli settlers and Palestinians.
Palestinian security sources said they were not aware of any arrests yet, but added that Israeli settlers in the area had thrown stones at Palestinian cars.
Israeli officials strongly denounced the attack, while Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, welcomed it.
Sporadic unrest has occurred since US President Donald Trump provoked Palestinian anger by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on December 6.
Fourteen Palestinians have been killed since then, with most of them shot dead in clashes with Israeli forces.
It was unclear if Tuesday’s shooting had any link to Trump’s announcement.
Israeli forces in manhunt for attackers who killed settler
Israeli forces in manhunt for attackers who killed settler
Iran, UK foreign ministers in rare direct contact
- A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues”
TEHRAN: Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has spoken by phone with his British counterpart Yvette Cooper, an Iranian foreign ministry statement said on Saturday, in a rare case of direct contact between the two countries.
The ministry said that in Friday’s call the ministers “stressed the need to continue consultations at various levels to strengthen mutual understanding and pursue issues of mutual interest.”
A UK government source said Cooper “emphasized the need for a diplomatic solution on Iran’s nuclear program and raised a number of other issues.”
The source in London said Cooper raised the case of Lindsay and Craig Foreman, a British couple detained in Iran for nearly a year on suspicion of espionage.
The Iranian ministry statement did not mention the case of the two Britons.
It said Araghchi criticized “the irresponsible approach of the three European countries toward the Iranian nuclear issue,” referring to Britain, France and Germany.
The three countries at the end of September initiated the
reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program.
The Foremans, both in their early fifties, were seized in January as they passed through Kerman, in central Iran, while on a round-the-world motorbike trip.
Iran accuses the couple of entering the country pretending to be tourists so as to gather information for foreign intelligence services, an allegation the couple’s family rejects.
Before Friday’s call, the last exchange between the two ministers was in October.
