Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians in raid on Jenin refugee camp

Unarmed Palestinians take shelter from Israeli gunfire and tear-gas canisters during Thursday’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. (AP)
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Updated 27 January 2023

Israeli forces kill nine Palestinians in raid on Jenin refugee camp

  • An elderly woman was reportedly among the dead and 20 people were wounded, 4 seriously, as Israeli forces searched for 3 militants
  • Meanwhile a 22-year-old man was shot and killed by soldiers in Al-Ram on what was the West Bank’s deadliest day for more than a year

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and wounded 20, four of them seriously, during a raid in Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, Youssef Muheisen, 22, died after being shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes in Al-Ram, in Jerusalem governorate, raising the day’s death toll to 10.

The bloodshed, which marked the West Bank’s deadliest day in more than a year, brought to 30 the total number of Palestinians killed this year by Israeli operations.

Security forces said they entered the camp to apprehend three Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad organization who, according to intelligence information, intended to carry out a significant attack against an Israeli target.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli officials initially prevented medics from entering the camp, making it difficult to reach the injured, four of whom were in critical condition. It said Israeli forces had fired tear gas canisters at the Jenin Government Hospital, resulting in inhalation injuries among children.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called on the UN and international human rights organizations to “intervene urgently to provide protection … and stop the bloodshed of children, youth and women.” He added that the occupying forces continue to commit killings and executions with impunity.

Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said: “I am deeply alarmed and saddened by the continuing cycle of violence in the occupied West Bank. Today’s deaths of nine Palestinians, including militants and one woman, during an Israeli arrest operation in Jenin is another stark example.”

He urged the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to de-escalate tensions, restore calm and avoid further conflict.

A general strike was called in the West Bank to mourn the dead. Large crowds attended the funerals of the nine victims, amid calls for revenge. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced three days of mourning, during which flags will fly at half-mast.

Separately, nine people were injured during clashes that broke out between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli forces near Bethlehem and Ramallah, during which live bullets and tear gas canisters were used to disperse crowds throwing stones.

An EU official in Jerusalem described the situation in the West Bank as complex and heading toward a dangerous curve. The official added that the EU has consistently called for immediate investigations into military operations that result in civilian casualties and for the results of such probes to be publicly announced.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “If the international community and the US administration do not move now, when these brutal crimes are committed by the occupying forces, then when will they move?”

Maj. Gen. Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, described the Israeli operation at the camp there as “the bloodiest and most violent in more than a year.”

He said great sadness, pain and anger prevails in the city and the camp, and the repeated Israeli incursions are weakening the roles of the Palestinian security services and the Palestinian Authority.

A Palestinian security officer at the Jenin camp, who asked to remain anonymous, told Arab News that a dairy truck with Palestinian number plates had arrived at about 7 a.m. on Thursday. Inside, there were about 30 members of the Israeli Special Forces. When young residents of the camp spotted the hidden force they attacked it with a barrage of stones, he said. Then reinforcements arrived, including more than 80 Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers, and a drone to monitor the camp.

He said the operation continued for more than four hours, during which the forces surrounded houses and targeted them with heavy gunfire and rockets.

“The camp was like a battlefield and reminded us of what happened in 2002,” the source said.

Following the operation in Jenin, Israeli troops in the West Bank and along the borders with Gaza were put on high alert amid fears of Palestinian retaliation, Israeli defense forces said.

Nabil Aburudeineh, spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency, described the killings as a “massacre” and condemned the silence of the international community over such incidents, “which encourages the Israeli government to commit more massacres against the Palestinian people and continue the escalation policy.”

Abdullatif Al-Qanou, who belongs to Hamas, the organization that rules Gaza, said: “The behavior of the extremist occupation government, the escalation of its crimes, and its transgression against our people will inevitably lead us to the battle of Jerusalem to defend our land, our families and our sanctities.”

Daoud Shehab, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, said: “The Jenin camp is the most prominent address of challenge and steadfastness throughout Palestine, and Jenin affirms that the resistance continues despite the arrogance and crimes of the occupation.”

Islamic Jihad is a powerful presence in the Jenin camp, where it operates a “Jenin Brigade” of about 300 well-trained fighters that coordinate with all other Palestinian militants in the camps.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend amid the escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence and American concerns about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new, far-right government.


Israeli soldiers to join Moroccan war games for first time

Updated 13 sec ago

Israeli soldiers to join Moroccan war games for first time

  • Morocco and Israel have been working to boost cooperation in the military, security, trade and tourism fields since they normalized ties in December 2020

RABAT: Israeli soldiers will for the first time take part in military exercises in Morocco when the biggest war games event in Africa kicks off Tuesday, the Israeli army said.
“This is the first time that the IDF is taking an active part in the ‘African Lion’ international exercise,” said a statement from the Israeli army late Monday.
“A delegation of 12 soldiers and commanders from the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion” — an elite infantry unit — has been sent to participate alongside some 8,000 soldiers from 18 countries.
The event — now in its 19th edition — is organized by Morocco and the United States.
“During the next two weeks, the soldiers will focus on training in various combat challenges that combine urban warfare and underground warfare, in which they will conclude in a common exercise for all participating armies,” read the Israeli statement.
Israel participated in the event last year, however only as international military observers, without soldiers taking part on the ground.
According to the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR), the war games include exercises in operational planning and fighting weapons of mass destruction, tactical land, sea, air and special forces training, as well as airborne operations.
Morocco and Israel have been working to boost cooperation in the military, security, trade and tourism fields since they normalized ties in December 2020.


Egypt reopens historic mosque after long restoration

A general view of the historical mosque of al-Zahir Baybars as Egypt reopens it after the completion of renovation work,in Cairo
Updated 05 June 2023

Egypt reopens historic mosque after long restoration

  • The mosque of Al-Zhahir Baybars, built under Mamluk rule in 1268, spans an area of three acres just north of central Cairo

CAIRO: A 13th century mosque that fell into disrepair after being used over the years as a soap factory, a slaughterhouse and a fort reopened in Cairo on Monday after undergoing a long restoration.
The mosque of Al-Zhahir Baybars, built under Mamluk rule in 1268, spans an area of three acres just north of central Cairo, making it Egypt’s third-largest mosque.
The mosque underwent mechanical and chemical restoration to bring it back to its original condition, said Tarek Mohamed El-Behairy, who supervised the restoration.
“Some parts were destroyed, some parts have been dismantled because they were structurally unsuitable to remain in the mosque,” he said.
“But we were very keen, even in the reconstruction process, to work according to the correct archaeological style.”
The restoration, which cost $7.68 million, was co-funded with Kazakhstan and began in 2007.
For 225 years, the mosque was either closed, abandoned or had operated for non-religious purposes that contributed to its disrepair.
During Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt it was used as a military fort, then under Ottoman rule in the 19th century as a soap factory. Later, when the British invaded Egypt in 1882, it was used as a slaughterhouse.
Al-Zahir Baybars was a prominent figure in Egypt’s history credited with cementing Mamluk rule in Egypt which spanned three centuries up to 1517.


Killing of West Bank toddler condemned as ‘state terrorism’

Updated 05 June 2023

Killing of West Bank toddler condemned as ‘state terrorism’

  • Mohammed Al-Tamimi was shot in the head near his village of Nebi Saleh
  • The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the incident

RAMALLAH: Two-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed Al-Tamimi, who was shot by Israeli troops in the occupied West Bank last Thursday, died of his wounds, health officials said on Monday.

The toddler was shot in the head in the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah.

Basem Naim, the head of the political department of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, described the killing of Al-Tamimi as state terrorism.

Mustafa Al-Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Party, said that the killing of Al-Tamimi is an example of hundreds of crimes committed by the Israel Defense Forces against hundreds of Palestinian children.

He said Israeli violence must be deterred by sanctions and boycotts and and called for the soldiers and officers who committed the crimes to stand trial.

The shooting was the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Also on Monday, the Palestinians commemorated the 56th anniversary of the June 1967 Naksa when Israel seized the remaining Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, as well as the Syrian Golan Heights and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in a six-day war.

Nineteen years earlier, in 1948, the state of Israel came into being in a violent process. 

On the 56th anniversary of the Naksa, Palestinian experts reiterated their beliefs that the two-state solution is not possible anymore and that only a one-state solution is the future.

Nasser Al-Kidwa, the former representative of Palestine to the UN, told Arab News that the Palestinians had failed to achieve their national goals.

“We are far from achieving our national goals and have failed at all levels,” he said.

Ahmed Majdalani, minister of social development in the Palestinian Authority, disagreed with Al-Kidwa.

Majdalani told Arab News that the “resistance, sacrifices, and steadfastness of the Palestinian people had thwarted the Israeli occupation project to impose the Israeli vision on the Palestinian people, achieve the dream of Greater Israel, and achieve demographic change in the West Bank,” pointing out that Israel was forced to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in 2005.

He claimed that the Palestinian struggle had made a series of achievements since the setback in 1967.

He pointed to recognition of the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians, establishment of the Palestinian Authority on Palestinian lands, and 147 countries in the world recognizing Palestine as an observer state at the UN.

Ghassan al-Khatib, a Palestinian political analyst, told Arab News that Israel had not managed to swallow the West Bank 56 years after the setback, “and we have not succeeded in ending the occupation.”

Al-Khatib said that the Israeli goals were not achieved because the Palestinians had clung to their land and many did not migrate.

But Al-Khatib believes that the Palestinians are far from achieving their goal of establishing an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

“Our goal is to prevent the success of the Zionist project in the rest of the Palestinian territories, to fight against the apartheid project, and to call for one state instead of the two-state solution, which is no longer possible to achieve,” he said.

“Despite the absence of allies and supporters for the Palestinians, they succeeded in preventing the Israelis from achieving their strategic goals in the West Bank.”

Ahmed Ghuneim, a prominent leader in the Fatah movement, told Arab News that Israel has not achieved any decisive military victory since 1967.

“As Palestinians, 56 years after the setback, we did not win, but we were not defeated because there are still about 7 million Palestinians living on the Palestinian lands, which thwarted the Zionist project’s claim that Palestine is a land without a people for a people without a land,” Ghuneim told Arab News.

He pointed out that the Palestinians did not leave despite 56 years of racist laws and ethnic cleansing by Israel, but that did not mean that the Palestinians had not suffered the consequences of the setback or continue to pay the price for it.

“Israel wants to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians by enacting racist laws to achieve what it did not seek to resolve militarily,” he told Arab News.


France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation

Updated 05 June 2023

France seeks removal of Lebanese ambassador’s immunity after rape accusation

  • The first former employee, aged 31, filed her complaint in June 2022 for a rape she says was committed in May 2020 in the ambassador’s private apartment
  • The second woman made a complaint last February after what she said was a series of physical attacks after she turned down sexual relations

PARIS: French authorities will on Monday ask Lebanon to lift the immunity of Beirut’s ambassador to Paris after an investigation was opened into alleged rape and intentional violence by the envoy, a source said.
“Steps in this direction will be taken during the day,” a French diplomatic source, who asked not to be named, told AFP.
The ambassador, Rami Adwan, is being investigated in France following complaints by two former embassy employees. He has diplomatic immunity but could face trial if Lebanon agrees to France’s request.
Lebanon’s foreign ministry said Saturday that it would send an investigation team to the embassy in Paris to question the ambassador and hear statements from embassy staff.
The first former employee, aged 31, filed her complaint in June 2022 for a rape she says was committed in May 2020 in the ambassador’s private apartment, according to sources close to the investigation, confirming a report by the Mediapart news site.
According to the complaint, she had a relationship with the ambassador, who carried out “psychological and physical violence with daily humiliations.”
The second woman, aged 28, made a complaint last February after what she said was a series of physical attacks after she turned down sexual relations.
She says Adwan tried to hit her with his car after an argument on the sidelines of last year’s Normandy World Peace Forum.
“In view of the seriousness of the facts mentioned, we consider it necessary for the Lebanese authorities to lift the immunity of the Lebanese ambassador in Paris in order to facilitate the work of the French judicial authorities,” the French foreign ministry told AFP late Friday.
Adwan’s lawyer Karim Beylouni has said his client “contests all accusations of aggression in any shape or form: verbal, moral, sexual.”
He said Adwan had had “romantic relationships” with the two women between 2018 and 2022 that were “punctuated by arguments and breakups.”

Related


Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing

Updated 05 June 2023

Israel jails Palestinian for life over West Bank killing

  • The Israeli military court sentenced Moath Hamed, 39, to two life sentences for the attack

Jerusalem: An Israeli court on Sunday sentenced a Palestinian to life in prison for the 2015 killing of an Israeli settler in the occupied West Bank, the military said Monday.
The Israeli military court sentenced Moath Hamed, 39, to two life sentences for the attack, which he admitted to carrying out on behalf of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, the army said.
On June 29, 2015 Hamed fired at a vehicle, killing Malachi Rosenfeld, 25, who was returning from a basketball game near Shilo, an illegal settlement in the West Bank.
Three other Israelis were also injured in the attack.
In July 2015, Israel’s Shin Bet internal security agency said it had arrested seven Palestinians in connection with the attack.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said Hamed had been arrested by Israeli forces in April 2022 after being “pursued by the occupation (Israel) for seven years.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967.
Cases involving events in the West Bank are tried by Israeli military tribunals.
Nearly three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, as do around 490,000 Israelis in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.