NABLUS: A Palestinian stabbed and killed an Israeli man near a major West Bank settlement on Monday before fleeing the scene, Israeli authorities said.
“Israeli man murdered in stabbing attack in Ariel,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said in a statement, referring to the settlement in the occupied West Bank.
He said that security forces were searching for the attacker.
The victim was identified by settlers as Itamar Ben Gal, in his 40s and a resident of Har Bracha settlement near the West Bank city of Nablus.
The Israeli army identified the assailant as a Palestinian and said the stabbing occurred at a bus stop at the entrance to Ariel.
A video published online showed Ben Gal waiting for a bus as the assailant crosses the road and stabs him in the chest.
The army said an Israeli soldier pursued the attacker in his car and hit him with the vehicle, but he escaped.
The area around the settlement was closed off after the stabbing, eyewitnesses said.
Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, welcomed the attack, saying it showed the “Jerusalem Intifada (uprising) continues.”
Around 20 Israeli army jeeps on Monday raided the West Bank village of Burqin, near Nablus, home to relatives of 22-year-old Ahmed Jarrar, suspected of shooting dead Israeli Rabbi Raziel Shevach near another settlement in the northern West Bank.
Monday’s raid sparked clashes in which Palestinians threw stones at Israeli forces. One protester was shot in the leg, Palestinian security sources said.
That came days after soldiers on a raid in the village shot dead a 19-year-old identified by the Palestinian health ministry as Ahmad Abu Obeid.
Tensions have risen since US President Donald Trump’s controversial recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, which angered Palestinians who also see the city as their capital.
Twenty Palestinians and two Israelis have been killed since Trump’s December 6 announcement.
The majority of Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli forces.
Ariel, one of the largest settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, is near Nablus and 35 kilometers (22 miles) north of Jerusalem.
Palestinian kills Israeli near West Bank settlement
Palestinian kills Israeli near West Bank settlement
Israel confirms ban on 37 NGOs in Gaza
- UN has warned that this will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory
- Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence
JERUSALEM: Israel on Thursday said 37 humanitarian agencies supplying aid in Gaza had not met a deadline to meet “security and transparency standards,” and would be banned from the territory, despite an international outcry.
The international NGOs, which had been ordered to disclose detailed information on their Palestinian staff, will now be required to cease operations by March 1.
The United Nations has warned that this will exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.
“Organizations that have failed to meet required security and transparency standards will have their licenses suspended,” Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism said in a statement.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
Prominent humanitarian organizations hit by the ban include Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), World Vision International and Oxfam, according to a ministry list.
In MSF’s case, Israel accused it of having two employees who were members of Palestinian militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas.
MSF said this week the request to share a list of its staff “may be in violation of Israel’s obligations under international humanitarian law” and said it “would never knowingly employ people engaging in military activity.”
‘Critical requirement’
NRC spokesperson Shaina Low told AFP its local staff are “exhausted” and international staff “bring them an extra layer of help and security. Their presence is a protection.”
Submitting the names of local staff is “not negotiable,” she said. “We offered alternatives, they refused,” hse said, of the Israeli regulators.
The ministry said Thursday: “The primary failure identified was the refusal to provide complete and verifiable information regarding their employees, a critical requirement designed to prevent the infiltration of terrorist operatives into humanitarian structures.”
In March, Israel gave NGOs 10 months to comply with the new rules, which demand the “full disclosure of personnel, funding sources, and operational structures.”
The deadline expired on Wednesday.
The 37 NGOs “were formally notified that their licenses would be revoked as of January 1, 2026, and that they must complete the cessation of their activities by March 1, 2026,” the ministry said Thursday.
A ministry spokesperson told AFP that following the revocation of their licenses, aid groups could no longer bring assistance into Gaza from Thursday.
However, they could have their licenses reinstated if they submitted the required documents before March 1.
Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli said “the message is clear: humanitarian assistance is welcome — the exploitation of humanitarian frameworks for terrorism is not.”
‘Weaponization of bureaucracy’
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
“This weaponization of bureaucracy institutionalizes barriers to aid and forces vital organizations to suspend operations,” they said.
UN Palestinian refugee agency chief Philippe Lazzarini had said the move sets a “dangerous precedent.”
“Failing to push back against attempts to control the work of aid organizations will further undermine the basic humanitarian principles of neutrality, independence, impartiality and humanity underpinning aid work across the world,” he said on X.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of 10 countries, including France and Britain, urged Israel to “guarantee access” to aid in the Gaza Strip, where they said the humanitarian situation remains “catastrophic.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
