NABLUS, Palestinian Territories: An Israeli air strike on a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Thursday killed two Palestinians, including a former prisoner released in November, Palestinian sources and the army said.
It was the second such fatality within three days involving a former Palestinian inmate freed during a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
“Two men, aged 18 and 20, were killed and seven people were wounded, one of them seriously, in Balata” refugee camp in Nablus, the Palestinian health ministry said in a statement.
Wael Misha, 18, was one of 240 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails in November in exchange for 105 hostages held in Gaza, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club watchdog said.
The exchange took place during the week-long November ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which have been at war in the Palestinian territory since October 7.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said a woman and a child were among those wounded in Balata on Thursday, describing the incident as a “drone strike.”
The Israeli military said two armed militants were killed in a strike.
“An Israeli air force aircraft attacked and eliminated two armed militants who posed a threat to the forces operating in the area” of Nablus, the military said in a statement.
It said the strike came as the army and police were securing access for worshippers to Joseph’s tomb in Nablus during the night.
Jews believe the tomb is the burial site of the biblical patriarch Joseph, while Muslims consider it the burial place of a Muslim religious figure.
Earlier this week, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said Israeli forces killed another Palestinian who had been released during the November ceasefire.
Tariq Ziad Abdul Rahim Daoud, 18, was shot dead in the town of Azzun, east of Qalqilya, the military said, after he allegedly fired at an Israeli citizen.
Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separate geographically from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has surged since the start of the Gaza war on October 7.
At least 632 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by the Israeli army or settlers, according to an AFP count based on official Palestinian data.
During the same period, at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in the West Bank in Palestinian attacks, according to official Israeli data.
Israel strike in West Bank kills freed Palestinian prisoner
https://arab.news/jufmb
Israel strike in West Bank kills freed Palestinian prisoner
- Second such fatality within three days involving a former Palestinian inmate freed during a ceasefire in the Gaza war
- Wael Misha was one of 240 Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli jails in November in exchange for 105 hostages held in Gaza
Saad Hariri pledges to contest May election
- Beirut rally draws large crowds on anniversary of his father’s assassination
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced on Saturday that his movement, which represents the majority of Lebanon’s Sunni community, would take part in upcoming parliamentary elections scheduled for May.
The Future Movement had suspended its political activities in 2022.
Hariri was addressing a large gathering of Future Movement supporters as Lebanon marked the 21st anniversary of the assassination of his father and former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, at Martyrs’ Square in front of his tomb.
He said his movement remained committed to the approach of “moderation.”
A minute’s silence was observed by the crowd in Martyrs’ Square at the exact time when, in 2005, a suicide truck carrying about 1,000 kg of explosives detonated along Beirut’s seaside road as Rafik Hariri’s motorcade passed, killing him along with 21 others, including members of his security guards and civilians, and injuring 200 people.
Four members of Hezbollah were accused of carrying out the assassination and were tried in absentia by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
The crowd waved Lebanese flags and banners of the Future Movement as they awaited Saad Hariri, who had returned to Beirut from the UAE, where he resides, specifically to commemorate the anniversary, as has been an annual tradition.
Hariri said that “after 21 years, the supporters of Hariri’s approach are still many,” denouncing the “rumors and intimidation” directed at him.
He added: “Moderation is not hesitation … and patience is not weakness. Rafik Hariri’s project is not a dream that will fade. He was the model of a statesman who believed, until martyrdom, that ‘no one is greater than their country.’ The proof is his enduring place in the minds, hearts and consciences of the Lebanese people.”
Hariri said he chose to withdraw from political life after “it became required that we cover up failure and compromise the state, so we said no and chose to step aside — because politics at the expense of the country’s dignity and the project of the state has no meaning.”
He said: “The Lebanese are weary, and after years of wars, divisions, alignments and armed bastions, they deserve a normal country with one constitution, one army, and one legitimate authority over weapons — because Lebanon is one and will remain one. Notions of division have collapsed in the face of reality, history and geography, and the illusions of annexation and hegemony have fallen with those who pursued them, who ultimately fled.”
Hariri said the Future Movement’s project is “One Lebanon, Lebanon first — a Lebanon that will neither slide back into sectarian strife or internal fighting, nor be allowed to do so.”
He added that the Taif Agreement is “the solution and must be implemented in full,” arguing that “political factions have treated it selectively by demanding only what suits them — leaving the agreement unfulfilled and the country’s crises unresolved.”
He said: “When we call for the full implementation of the Taif Agreement, we mean: weapons exclusively in the hands of the state, administrative decentralization, the abolition of political sectarianism, the establishment of a senate and full implementation of the truce agreement. All of this must be implemented — fully and immediately — so we can overcome our chronic problems and crises together.
“Harirism will continue to support any Arab rapprochement, and reject any Arab discord. Those who seek to sow discord between the Gulf and Arab countries will harm only themselves and their reputation.
“We want to maintain the best possible relations with all Arab countries, starting with our closest neighbor, Syria — the new Syria, the free Syria that has rid itself of the criminal and tyrannical regime that devastated it and Lebanon, and spread its poison in the Arab world.”
Hariri said he saluted “the efforts of unification, stabilization and reconstruction led by Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa.”
When asked about the Future Movement’s participation in parliamentary elections following his withdrawal from politics, he said: “Tell me when parliamentary elections will be held, and I will tell you what the Future Movement will do. I promise you that, when the elections take place, they will hear our voices, and they will count our votes.”
The US Embassy in Lebanon shared a post announcing that Ambassador Michel Issa laid a wreath at the grave of Rafik Hariri.
Hariri’s legacy “to forge peace and prosperity continues to resonate years later with renewed significance,” the embassy said.
