West Bank

10 missing Indian workers rescued from West Bank by Israeli authorities

Indian workers were lured to a village in the West Bank with job promises, where their passports were confiscated. Israeli authorities have since rescued them, and they are now in a safe location

Anti-US sentiment in West Bank boosts demand for alternative 'Chat Cola'

Order a Coke to wash down some hummus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank these days and chances are the waiter will shake his head disapprovingly or worse, mutter shame, shame in Arabic before suggesting the popular local alternative: a can of Chat Cola. Chat Cola its red tin and sweeping white script bearing remarkable resemblance to the iconic American soft drink's logo has seen its products explode in popularity across the occupied West Bank in the past year as Palestinian consumers, angry at America's steadfast support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, protest with their pocketbooks. No one wants to be caught drinking Coke, said Mad Asaad, 21, a worker at the bakery-cafe chain Croissant House in the West Bank city of Ramallah, which stopped selling Coke after the war erupted. Everyone drinks Chat now. It's sending a message. Since Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack triggered Israel's devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian-led boycott movement

Israel sends tanks into West Bank for first time as it deepens crackdown

Israeli tanks moved into the occupied West Bank on Sunday for the first time in decades in what Palestinian authorities called a "dangerous escalation", after the defence minister said troops will remain in parts of the territory for a year and tens of thousands of Palestinians who have fled cannot return. Associated Press journalists saw several tanks move along unpaved tracks into Jenin, long a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. Israel is deepening its crackdown on the Palestinian territory and has said it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. It launched the offensive in the northern West Bank on January 21 two days after the current ceasefire in Gaza took hold and has expanded it to nearby areas. Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The deadly raids have caused destruction in urban areas. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he a

Israel ups offense in West Bank, says troops to stay for a yr in few areas

Israel's defence minister said Sunday troops would remain for the coming year in parts of the occupied West Bank where they have launched a weekslong offensive and would prevent tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians from returning, as Israel deepens its crackdown on the Palestinian territory. Israel launched a broad offensive on the northern West Bank on January 21 two days after the ceasefire that paused the war in Gaza took hold and then expanded it to include other nearby areas. Israel says it is determined to stamp out militancy amid a rise in attacks. Palestinians view such raids as part of an effort to cement Israeli control over the territory, where 3 million Palestinians live under military rule. The raids have been deadly, caused destruction to urban areas and displaced tens of thousands. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said he had instructed the military to prepare to remain in some of the West Bank's urban refugee camps, from where he said some 40,000 ...

Israel PM Netanyahu deploys army in West Bank after terror attack on buses

The bus blasts came just hours after Palestinian militant group Hamas returned four bodies purported to be hostages held in Gaza since its October 7, 2023 attack

Israel's West Bank crackdown causes mass displacement unseen since 1967

By car and on foot, through muddy olive groves and snipers' sight lines, tens of thousands of Palestinians in recent weeks have fled Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank the largest displacement in the occupied territory since the 1967 Mideast war. After announcing a widespread crackdown against West Bank militants on January 21 just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza Israeli forces descended on the restive city of Jenin, as they have dozens of times since Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. But unlike past operations, Israeli forces then pushed deeper and more forcefully into several other nearby towns, including Tulkarem, Far'a and Nur Shams, scattering families and stirring bitter memories of the 1948 war over Israel's creation. During that war, 7,00,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel. That Nakba, or catastrophe, as Palestinians call it, gave rise to the crowded West Bank towns now under assau

Six injured in attack in Israel-occupied West Bank; assailant killed

At least six people were injured in a shooting attack at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank early Tuesday morning, according to the Israeli military and area hospitals. The Israeli military said an attacker fired at soldiers at a checkpoint in the village of Tayasir, which is in the northern West Bank. In a tense exchange, soldiers returned fire and the attacker was killed, the military added. Israeli hospitals said they had received a total of six people injured in the shooting attack. Israeli media reported the injured are soldiers and at least two of them were critically injured. Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad militant group praised the attack but neither claimed responsibility for it. Israel has carried out an extensive operation in nearby Jenin over the past weeks to clamp down on what Israel said is militant activity in the city, as soldiers and armored bulldozers have caused widespread damage and destroyed scores of homes. Palestinian health officials have

Released Palestinian prisoners arrive to celebrations in West Bank

Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank city of Ramallah celebrated the arrival of buses carrying dozens of prisoners released as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Israel said it released a total of 200 prisoners after Hamas freed four young, female Israeli soldiers. The prisoners include 120 who were serving life sentences after being convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis. Around 70 were released into Egypt. Hamas militants handed over four captive female Israeli soldiers to the Red Cross in Gaza City on Saturday after parading them in front of a crowd. Israel followed with the release of 200 Palestinian prisoners or detainees as part of the fragile ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. The four Israeli soldiers smiled broadly as they waved and gave the thumbs-up from a stage in Gaza City's Palestine Square, militants on either side of them and a crowd of thousands watching before they were led off to waiting Red Cross vehicles. They were likely acting under duress, with previously

Palestinian govt tells UNSC it's ready to run Gaza Strip, West Bank

The Palestinian government has said it is ready to take responsibility for running the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and is committed to managing crossing points in collaboration with the European Union and Egypt. Palestinian minister of state for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian, told a ministerial meeting of the UN Security Council on Gaza on Monday that the government welcomes any assistance to train and equip the Palestinian police and security forces. She also called for urgent humanitarian aid. Aghabekian expressed hope that the six-week ceasefire will lead to a final ceasefire and lay the foundations for a political track to end Israel's occupation within a year as called for by the International Court of Justice, the UN's highest tribunal. Israel's political coordinator, Reut Shapir Ben Naftaly, told the council "this war will not end until every hostage is returned and Hamas' ability to terrorise is dismantled". She said the Middle East stands at "a turning point" where

West Bank Palestinians risk crossing Israeli border to flee failing economy

At dawn in mid-May, Sayyed Ayyed and dozens of other unemployed Palestinian men gathered at the foot of the towering wall of concrete and barbed wire dividing the occupied West Bank from Israel. A smuggler was there with a ladder and ropes. Each man handed over the equivalent of $100. Ayyed waited his turn as others clambered over. The 30-year-old father of two young daughters hadn't found work for a year. Debts were mounting. Rent had to be paid. On the Israeli side, there was the lure of work on a construction site. He just had to get over the wall. When we reach the point where you see that your children do not have food, he said, the barrier of fear is broken. A year of war in Gaza has reverberated across the West Bank, where the World Bank warns the economy is at risk of collapse because of Israeli restrictions barring Palestinian laborers from entering the country for work, and the biggest wave of violence in decades. Unemployment has skyrocketed, reaching 30% from around 12

Indian origin Israeli soldier killed amid tensions in the West Bank

A 24-year-old Indian-origin Israeli soldier from the Bnei Menashe community was killed in a vehicle-ramming attack close to the West Bank's Beit El settlement, community members said on Thursday. Staff Sergeant Geri Gideon Hanghal was a resident of Nof HaGalil and a soldier in the Kfir Brigade's Nahshon Battalion, the Israeli Army said. Community members told PTI that they were "in shock at the news of the loss of a young life" on Wednesday near Asaf Junction. His funeral will be held on Thursday, they said. Hanghal immigrated to Israel from the northeastern part of India in 2020. Some 300 Bnei Menashe youngsters are said to be doing Army duty during the current war, most of them serving in combat units. The Bnei Menashe, hailing from India's north-eastern states of Manipur and Mizoram, are believed to have descended from the Israelite tribe of Menasseh, one of the lost tribes of ancient times. Shlomo Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi, declared them descendants of Menasseh in 2005 pav

Shooting attack at West Bank-Jordan border crossing kills 3 Israelis

Three people were shot and killed Sunday at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, Israeli officials said. The military said the gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians. Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said the three men who were killed were in their 50s. There was no immediate comment from Jordan, which made peace with Israel in 1994 but is fiercely critical of its policies toward the Palestinians. The Allenby crossing is mainly used by Israelis, Palestinians and international tourists. The Israeli-occupied West Bank has seen a surge of violence since Hamas' Oct 7 attack out of Gaza triggered the war there. Israel has launched near-daily military arrest raids into dense Palestinian residential areas, and there has also been a rise in settler violence and Palestinian attacks on ...

Israeli soldiers shot American woman at West Bank protest: Reports

Israeli soldiers killed an American woman demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank on Friday, according to a witness who said she was shot while posing no threat to Israeli forces and during a moment of calm after clashes earlier in the afternoon. Two Palestinian doctors said 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi of Seattle was shot in the head. The US government confirmed Eygi's death but did not say whether the recent graduate of the University of Washington, who was also a Turkish citizen, had been shot by Israeli troops. The White House said it was deeply disturbed by the killing of a US citizen and called on Israel to investigate what happened. The Israeli military said it was looking into reports that troops had killed a foreign national while firing at an instigator of violent activity in the area of the protest. The killing came amid a surge of violence in the West Bank since the Israel-Hamas war began in October, with increasing Israeli raids, attacks by Palestinian ...

Polio vaccine campaign begins in Gaza day before fight expected to pause

A campaign to inoculate children in Gaza against polio and prevent the spread of the virus has begun, the Health Ministry has said, as Palestinians in the Hamas-governed enclave and the occupied West Bank reeled from Israel's military offensives. Meanwhile, Israel's military late Saturday in a terse announcement said it had located a number of bodies during combat in Gaza. The army was trying to identify the bodies, including whether they were hostages, but said the process would take several hours. We ask to refrain from spreading rumors, it said. There were no further details. A small number of children in Gaza received vaccine doses on Saturday, a day before the large-scale rollout and planned pause in fighting agreed to by Israel and the UN World Health Organisation. There must be a cease-fire so that the teams can reach everyone targeted by this campaign, said Dr Yousef Abu Al-Rish, Gaza's deputy health minister, describing scenes of sewage running through crowded tent camps. .

Israeli army kills five more West Bank militants, including local commander

The Israeli military says it has killed five more militants in a large-scale operation in the occupied West Bank, including a well-known local commander. There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the death of Mohammed Jaber, known as Abu Shujaa, a commander in the Islamic Jihad militant group in the Nur Shams refugee camp. The military said he was killed along with four other militants in a shootout with Israeli forces early Thursday after the five had hidden inside a mosque. It said Abu Shujaa was linked to numerous attacks on Israelis, including a deadly shooting in June, and was planning more. He was reported killed earlier this year, but then made a surprise appearance at the funeral of other militants, where he was hoisted onto the shoulders of a cheering crowd. The military said another militant was arrested in the operation in the West Bank city of Tulkarem, and that a member of Israel's paramilitary Border Police was lightly wounded. Israel launched a large-scale

Israel kills nine militants in West Bank amid ongoing cease-fire talks

Two Israeli airstrikes in the West Bank killed nine Palestinian militants on Saturday, Israel's army said, as violence flared again in the Israeli-occupied territory with tensions high over the war in Gaza and a potential regional escalation. Cease-fire discussions on Gaza continued, with an Israel delegation led by the Mossad chief briefly visiting Cairo, an Egyptian official said. The US has urged Israel to seize the chance for a cease-fire after the shock killing of Hamas' political leader in Iran, which Tehran blames on Israel. That killing and Israel's assassination of a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon have the region holding its breath for retaliation against Israel on either front, or both, after Iran and its proxies vowed to act. Hamas said its command had begun discussions on choosing a new leader. In the northern West Bank, the Israeli army said its forces first struck a vehicle in a rural area outside the city of Tulkarem early Saturday, killing the five occupants. The arm

Hamas commander among nine killed in Israeli airstrike in West Bank

An Israeli airstrike on a vehicle in the occupied West Bank killed five Palestinians, according to Israel's army and Palestinian media, as violence flares in the Israeli-occupied territory. The Israeli army said its forces struck a vehicle carrying five militants in a rural area northwest of the city of Tulkarem in the northwest West Bank early Saturday morning, as the occupants were on their way to carry out an attack. According to an Associated Press journalist and witnesses, the blast took place along a road connecting the Palestinian villages of Zeita and Qaffin. I was going to work in the morning and I heard an explosion here next to the house, said Taiser Abdullah, a Zeita resident. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said the five slain Palestinians were taken to a nearby hospital, and that four of the bodies were burned and charred beyond recognition. The Palestinian health ministry has not commented on the deaths. Over 590 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli f

TMC leaders slam Budget as one for NDA, not India, says nothing for WB

Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders on Tuesday said the budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha has nothing for West Bengal and called it a budget for the ruling NDA and not for India. "This is a 'kursi bachao budget' (budget to save the chair)," TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee said. "This budget is aimed at saving (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi's position. It is a budget for the NDA, not for India," he said. "Last time they gave so many projects to Odisha. Now they (BJP) have won (the Assembly polls in the state), so there is nothing for Odisha. There is also nothing for Bengal," Banerjee said. TMC's Rajya Sabha MP Saket Gokhale alleged that there is an "open and shameless" discrimination against West Bengal in the budget. "Open and shameless discrimination yet again in this Union Budget. Union Govt excludes only Bengal from flood relief and reconstruction funds," he said in a post on X. "Giving funds to other states while intentionally ignoring and singling

More than 1.5 mn foreign Muslims arrive in Mecca for annual Hajj pilgrimage

Muslim pilgrims have been streaming into Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca ahead of the start of the Hajj later this week, as the annual pilgrimage returns to its monumental scale. Saudi officials say more than 1.5 million foreign pilgrims have arrived in the country by Tuesday, the vast majority by air, from across the world. More are expected, and hundreds of thousands of Saudis and others living in Saudi Arabia will also join them when the pilgrimage officially begins on Friday. Saudi officials have said they expect the number of pilgrims this year to exceed 2023, when more than 1.8 million people performed Hajj, approaching pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, more than 2.4 million Muslims made the pilgrimage. The pilgrims included 4,200 Palestinians from the occupied West Bank who arrived in Mecca earlier this month, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not able to travel to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year, because

Cargo ship hit by missile in suspected attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels

A missile struck an Antigua and Barbuda-flagged cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on Sunday in a suspected attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen, authorities said. The missile hit the ship's forward station, starting a fire that those on board later put out, the private security firm Ambrey said. A second missile fired at the ship missed and people on board small boats in the vicinity opened fire on the ship during the incident, Ambrey added, though no one was hurt onboard. The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center similarly reported an attack late Saturday in the same area off Aden, but provided no further details. Suspicion for the attack immediately fell on the Houthis. The rebels did not immediately claim the assault, though it can sometimes take hours or even days for them to acknowledge their attacks. The Houthis, who seized Yemen's capital nearly a decade ago and have been fighting a Saudi-led coalition since shortly after, have been targeting shipping .