Tag Archives: West bank

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he spoke with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday and that the two agreed there was a need to make trust-building steps. It was the first high-level contact made public by the new Israeli government, which was sworn in last month, unseating the country’s …

An independent UN human rights expert has condemned the “unlawful and heartless” actions of Israeli authorities in repeatedly demolishing homes belonging to the Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa Al-Baqai’a, in the occupied West Bank. Michael Lynk, the UN’s special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, …

Palestinian workers in the Israel-occupied West Bank are putting the final touches on a decommissioned Boeing 707 aircraft to ready it for a new kind of takeoff: as a restaurant. Its enterprising owners, 60-year-old twin brothers Ata and Khamis Al-Sairafi, expect to welcome their first customers within weeks at the …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has raised concerns with Israeli officials over the demolition of a family’s home in the West Bank, the State Department said on Thursday. “The secretary and other senior officials here at the State Department in recent days have raised these concerns directly with senior …

The Israeli army said Thursday it demolished the home of a Palestinian woman with US citizenship whose estranged husband stands accused of fatally shooting a Jewish student in the occupied West Bank. “Overnight… troops demolished the residence of the terrorist [Montasser] Shalabi, in the village of Turmus Ayya, northeast of …

Israel demolished the tent dwellings of at least 63 Bedouin in a village in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a Palestinian official said, in an area designated by the Israeli military as a firing zone. Palestinians and rights groups accuse Israel of trying to forcibly clear out the Bedouin …

Norway’s largest pension fund KLP said on Monday it would no longer invest in 16 companies including Alstom ALSO.PA and Motorola MSI.N because of their links to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Along with a number of other countries, Norway considers the settlements a breach of international law. A 2020 United Nations report …

Israel demolished a Palestinian shop in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Tuesday, triggering scuffles between police and protesters who accused authorities of discriminatory enforcement of building permits in the holy city. Palestinians seek East Jerusalem, which Israel captured in a 1967 war, for a future state. Israel deems …

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Saturday deployed security forces to confront protesters who took to the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank after one of President Mahmoud Abbas’s biggest critics died in custody. Nizar Banat had been arrested by PA forces who broke into a relative’s house where he …

The United Nations on Thursday accused Israel of flagrantly violating international law by expanding settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, saying settlements are illegal and urging the country’s new government to halt their enlargement immediately. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UN Mideast envoy Tor Wennesland reported on implementation …

A Palestinian activist who died in the custody of President Mahmoud Abbas’s security forces took blows to the head, a Palestinian rights group said after conducting an autopsy, adding the wounds indicated “an unnatural death”. According to relatives, Nizar Banat was severely beaten during his arrest by Palestinian security forces …

Israel allowed a limited resumption of commercial exports from the Gaza Strip on Monday in what it called a “conditional” measure one month after a truce halted 11 days of fighting with the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers. Gaza border officials said the easing of Israeli restrictions would last two to …

Violent speech directed against Arabs and Palestinians on social media increased 15-fold during the recent hostilities in Gaza, a report has found.  Between May 6 and May 21 when clashes with Israel were most severe, hate speech against Palestinians rose dramatically in comparison with the same period in 2020, according …

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian teenager during a clash in the occupied West Bank on Friday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. The violence erupted at a protest against Israeli settlements near the city of Nablus, witnesses said. The Israeli military called it “a violent riot with hundreds of …

Israeli officials said on Tuesday they would allow a right-wing march in Jerusalem’s Old City to go ahead next week under certain conditions, a day after police barred the event’s route fearing it would rekindle conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. Several right-wing Israeli groups had planned a …

Israeli police detained two prominent Palestinian activists on Sunday who have become the faces of a campaign to halt Palestinian evictions from the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Footage on social media on Sunday showed Muna El-Kurd, 23, whose family faces eviction from their home in Sheikh Jarrah after …

Israeli police arrested a Palestinian protest leader in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday, a day after forcefully detaining a prominent Al-Jazeera journalist covering the campaign by Jewish settlers to evict dozens of Palestinian families from the area. The arrest Sunday of Muna Al-Kurd, confirmed by phone by …

Pakistan has taken “serious exception” to an Israeli far-right politician’s use of an image of a hospital in the capital city Islamabad, claiming it was a Hamas headquarters and “the largest medical complex in Gaza,” foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said. “We have seen the statement by Israel’s former …

Instagram announced on Monday that the platform would be making changes to the way it displays content after receiving accusations of censoring Palestine-related content during the latest wave of violence in Gaza. The “stories” feature on Instagram was built according to an algorithm that favors original content as opposed to …

Naftali Bennett, Israel’s likely next prime minister, is a self-made tech millionaire who dreams of annexing most of the occupied West Bank. Bennett has said that creation of a Palestinian state would be suicide for Israel, citing security reasons. But the standard-bearer of Israel’s religious right and staunch supporter of …

The next phase of international diplomacy to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must focus on ending Israel’s occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state, according to Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN. He told Arab News said that efforts at the UN relating to Palestine this year have fallen …

An Israeli court Wednesday postponed a hearing in a case that could see two Palestinian families expelled from their homes in occupied east Jerusalem’s Silwan district so Jewish settlers can move in, their lawyer said. The delayed hearing on the dispute comes less than three weeks after a similar case …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt on Wednesday on the next leg of a diplomatic mission aimed at shoring up a cease-fire that ended an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas. Blinken was scheduled to hold talks with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Foreign Minister Sameh …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged on a Middle East mission on Tuesday that Washington would provide new aid to help rebuild Gaza as part of efforts to bolster a ceasefire between its Hamas Islamist rulers and Israel. Hoping to reverse a move taken by former President Donald Trump …

An Israeli defense official said Monday aid to rebuild the conflict-battered Gaza Strip must bypass its Islamist rulers Hamas, and instead flow through an international “mechanism” to reach people directly. Israel has enforced a blockade on impoverished Gaza since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the crowded enclave.Israel argues the …

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken began a Middle East visit in Israel on Tuesday, hoping to bolster its ceasefire with Gaza’s ruling Hamas militants and help speed humanitarian aid to the devastated Palestinian enclave. In tandem with Blinken’s mission, Israeli authorities said they were allowing fuel, medicine and food …

Singer Dua Lipa is blasting an organization that paid for a full-page ad in The New York Times that called her antisemitic for her support of Palestinians, saying it used her name “shamelessly” to “advance their ugly campaign with falsehoods and blatant misrepresentations.” In the rambling ad which appeared in …

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held into a third day on Sunday as mediators spoke to all sides about extending the period of calm after the worst outbreak of fighting in years. Egyptian mediators have been shuttling between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, to …

Israeli police on Sunday escorted around 50 Jewish visitors to a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem where police actions in recent weeks had ignited protests and violence that triggered war in Gaza, according to the Islamic authority overseeing the site. The Waqf said police cleared young Palestinians out of the …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank on Wednesday and Thursday as part of Washington’s efforts to build on the Gaza truce, a source briefed on the planning said on Saturday. US, Israeli and Palestinian officials have not published Blinken’s …

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday said the Democratic Party still supported Israel and he was praying that the ceasefire between Israelis and Hamas would hold. Speaking at a White House news conference, Biden said a two-state solution was the only answer to resolving the conflict between the two sides, …

Israel and Hamas will cease fire across the Gaza Strip border as of Friday, the Palestinian Islamist faction and Egyptian state TV said, bringing a potentially tenuous halt to the fiercest fighting in years. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said his security cabinet had voted unanimously in favour of …

Hundreds of Kuwaitis demonstrated on Wednesday in support of Palestinians and burned an Israeli flag to protest at the bombardment of Gaza after authorities allowed the rally to proceed despite coronavirus restrictions. Protesters, who were only granted access to a main square on foot to limit numbers, chanted “Death to …

China’s UN ambassador says France is seeking a UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militants who control Gaza. Zhang Jun, the current council president, confirmed that France’s UN Ambassador Nicolas De Riviere informed the council during the third round of closed consultations Tuesday on …

The Associated Press’ top editor is calling for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, saying the public deserves to know the facts. Separately, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders asked the International Criminal Court …

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the violence in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza in phone calls with the Saudi, Qatari and Egyptian foreign ministers, the State Department said on Sunday. Blinken and Qatar’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani discussed “efforts to restore calm in Israel and the …

An Israeli airstrike on Saturday destroyed a high-rise building that housed The Associated Press office in the Gaza Strip, despite repeated urgent calls from the news agency to the military to halt the impending attack. AP called the strike “shocking and horrifying.” Twelve AP staffers and freelancers were working and …

 French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday about the escalating conflict between Israel and Palestinians and called for a return to peace in the region. In a statement, Macron condemned rocket attacks by Hamas and said Israel had the right to defend itself. He …

Jordanian riot police on Friday forcibly dispersed hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters trying to reach a bridge that leads to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Witnesses said police fired tear gas and shot into the air to halt about 500 young demonstrators, who broke away from the scheduled route of a march …

Individuals involved in a new eruption of Israeli-Palestinian bloodshed may be targeted by an International Criminal Court investigation now under way into alleged war crimes in earlier bouts of the conflict, its top prosecutor said in an interview. The ICC‘s Fatou Bensouda told Reuters she would press ahead with her inquiry …

The U.N. Security Council will publicly discuss the worsening violence between Israel and Palestinian militants on Sunday, diplomats said, reaching a compromise over U.S. objections to a meeting on Friday. Diplomats said the United States, a close ally of Israel, had initially suggested a virtual public meeting could be held …

Three rockets were launched from Lebanon toward northern Israel on Thursday but landed in the Mediterranean Sea, causing no damage or casualties, the Israeli military said. The rocket firing threatened to open a new front in the escalating fighting between Israel and the militant Palestinian Hamas group in Gaza. The …

The United States has objected to a request by China, Norway and Tunisia for a public, virtual meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday to discuss the worsening violence between Israel and Palestinian militants, diplomats said. The United States, a close ally of Israel, cited diplomatic efforts as …

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an emergency meeting on Sunday to discuss the situation in Jerusalem and Gaza, at the request of Saudi Arabia, it was reported on Thursday. The meeting between foreign ministers of OIC member nations will address continuing Israeli attacks in the Palestinian territories, which have …