Page 2 - West Bank

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 .

Israel's army targets 'Hamas compound' in school; media says 39 killed

Israel's military said Thursday it targeted what it called a Hamas compound inside of a school in the Gaza Strip, an attack Hamas-affiliated media there reported killed at least 39 people. Information about the strike in the Nuseirat area remained contradictory Thursday morning, and The Associated Press could not immediately independently confirm details about the strike. Hamas' al-Aqsa television broadcaster offered the death toll, without offering a source for the figures. The Israeli military said its fighter jets struck the school run by the United Nations agency providing aid to the Palestinians, known by the acronym UNRWA. The Israeli military claimed, without immediately offering evidence, that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad used the school as cover for their operations. Before the strike, a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians during the strike, including conducting aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence information, the Isra

Message from US campuses

Suppressing protests may be politically self-defeating

Israeli settlers rampage West Bank village, kill 1 Palestinian, wound 25

Dozens of angry Israeli settlers stormed into a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Friday, shooting and setting houses and cars on fire. The rampage killed a Palestinian man and wounded 25 others, Palestinian health officials said. The violence was the latest in an escalation in the West Bank that has accompanied the war in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli rights group said the settlers were searching for a missing 14-year-old boy from their settlement. After the rampage, Israeli troops said they were still searching for the teen. The killing came after an Israeli raid overnight killed two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant in confrontations with Israeli forces. Palestinian health officials say over 460 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces since the war erupted in October. The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said that settlers stormed into the village of al-Mughayyir late Friday, searching for the Israeli boy. The group said tha

Anurag Thakur hits out at TMC, condemns atrocities in restive Sandeshkhali

Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur has hit out at the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in West Bengal, accusing it of doing nothing to control the goons targeting innocent people in trouble-torn Sandeshkhali. Thakur was speaking to reporters on the sideline of a function in Bhota on Friday night. "The sad thing is that the West Bengal government is not doing anything... If women were not safe under the rule of a woman chief minister, then questions start to arise on the law-and-order situation in the state," he said. An intense political row involving the BJP and the Trinamool Congress has erupted after several women in Sandeshkhali, in the state's North 24 Parganas district, accused the regional party's strongman Shajahan Sheikh and his supporters of "land-grab and sexual assault". Fresh protests erupted in the village on Friday as locals torched the property of the accused Trinamool leaders and held demonstrations against the delay in arresting Sheikh. Th

West Bank settler population grew nearly 3%, Gaza war could give new push

The population of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank grew nearly 3 per cent in 2023, according to a new report based on population statistics from the Israeli government. The report, released on Sunday by the pro-settler group WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com, found the settler population jumped to 517,407 as of December 31, from 502,991 a year earlier. The settler population has grown over 15 per cent in the last five years, the report said. Last year, it passed the half-million mark, a major threshold. This year's report predicted "accelerated growth" in the coming years, claiming the October 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel, which triggered the current war in Gaza, persuaded many Israelis who were formerly opposed to settlement-building on occupied land to change positions. "Serious cracks have indeed developed in the wall of opposition to Jewish settlement of the West Bank," it said. Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war

Stop 'hide & seek' in arresting ED attack accused: Ananda Bose to WB police

"Officers should stop hunting with the hound and running with the hare. Do not sow the wind and reap the whirlwind," the Governor warned the police

Drive-by shooting, clashes in West Bank kill 7 Palestinians, 2 Israelis

An Israeli man was fatally shot at a busy intersection in the West Bank on Sunday, hours after a violent confrontation elsewhere in the Israeli-occupied territory left seven Palestinians and a member of Israel's paramilitary border police dead. In Sunday's drive-by shooting, assailants fired through the victim's front windshield, the Magen David Adom rescue service said. Paramedics arriving at the scene in the central West Bank found the man unresponsive in his car. The Israeli army said security forces were searching the area for the shooter. Israeli media reported that security forces found an abandoned car that was likely used to carry out the attack, and the suspect fled on foot. Hours earlier, a deadly confrontation erupted when Israeli security forces were on patrol to search for roadside bombs in Jenin, a town and adjacent refugee camp by the same name in the northern West Bank. A roadside bomb exploded near a vehicle of the paramilitary border police, killing a policewoman

Top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri killed in Israeli drone strike in Beirut

An explosion in Beirut on Tuesday killed Saleh Arouri, a top official with the Palestinian militant group Hamas and three others, officials with Hamas and the Lebanese group Hezbollah said. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the blast killed four people and was carried out by an Israeli drone. Israeli officials declined to comment. If Israel is behind the attack it could mark a major escalation in the Middle East conflict. Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to retaliate against any Israeli targeting of Palestinian officials in Lebanon. Hamas official Bassem Naim confirmed to The Associated Press that Arouri was killed in the blast. A Hezbollah official speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations also said Arouri was killed. Arouri, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, had headed the group's presence in the West Bank. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had threatened to kill him even before the Hamas-Israel war began on Octo

Human rights situation rapidly deteriorating in West bank: UN report

The report calls for an immediate end to the use of military weapons and means during law enforcement operations, an end to arbitrary detention and ill-treatment of Palestinians

Egypt floats plan to end Israel-Hamas war, create transitional govt

Egypt has put forward an ambitious, initial proposal to end the Israel-Hamas war with a cease-fire, a phased hostage release and the creation of a Palestinian government of experts who would administer the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank, a senior Egyptian official and a European diplomat said on Monday. The proposal, worked out with the Gulf nation of Qatar, has been presented to Israel, Hamas, the United States and European governments but still appeared preliminary. It falls short of Israel's professed goal of outright crushing Hamas and would appear not to meet Israel's insistence on keeping military control over Gaza for an extended period after the war. Israel's War Cabinet, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will meet later Monday discuss the hostage situation, among other topics, an Israeli official said, but would not say if they would discuss the Egyptian proposal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the ...

Israel-Hamas war clouds Christmas eve celebrations in West Bank's Bethlehem

The normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, as Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war. The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square. This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there's just darkness, said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years. He said he always comes to Bethlehem to mark Christmas, but this year was especially sobering, as he gazed at a nativity scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, reminiscent of the thousands of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounded the scene, the grey rubble reflecting none of the joyous lights and

With world's eyes on Gaza, attacks are on the rise in West Bank now

When Israeli warplanes swooped over the Gaza Strip following Hamas militants' deadly attack on southern Israel, Palestinians say a different kind of war took hold in the occupied West Bank. Overnight, the territory was closed off. Towns were raided, curfews imposed, teenagers arrested, detainees beaten, and villages stormed by Jewish vigilantes. With the world's attention on Gaza and the humanitarian crisis there, the violence of war has also erupted in the West Bank. Israeli settler attacks have surged at an unprecedented rate, according to the United Nations. The escalation has spread fear, deepened despair, and robbed Palestinians of their livelihoods, their homes and, in some cases, their lives. Our lives are hell, said Sabri Boum, a 52-year-old farmer who fortified his windows with metal grills last week to protect his children from settlers he said threw stun grenades in Qaryout, a northern village. It's like I'm in a prison. In six weeks, settlers have killed nine Palestini

Biden stands firm against ceasefire, condemns West Bank violence in op-ed

In the op-ed, Biden also said that a two-state solution is the only solution to the enduring conflict in the region and that, in the meantime, there should be governance under Palestinian Authority

Israeli troops kill 5 Palestinians, including 3 militants, across West Bank

Israeli forces on Friday killed five Palestinians, including three militants, across the West Bank, deepening a surge of violence in the occupied territory that has accompanied Israel's war in the Gaza Strip. The deaths raised to 205 the number of Palestinians killed in West Bank violence since the Gaza war erupted on October 7, making it the deadliest period in the territory since the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s. Israel says the crackdown is aimed at Hamas, the ruling group in Gaza, and other militant groups active in the West Bank. But rights groups say the Israeli tactics, including deadly raids, home demolitions, and arrests, are being carried out with increased frequency. The war erupted on October 7 when Hamas militants in Gaza crossed into Israel and killed at least 1,200 people and kidnapped 240 others. Israel launched a war that has claimed over 11,000 lives in Gaza, most of them civilians, according to health officials in the Hamas-ruled territory. At th