JERUSALEM: Pedestrians walk on a thick layer of soot from tires set ablaze in frequent clashes with Israeli troops. Cars navigate around potholes in streets littered with garbage. Motorists honk in a traffic jam near an Israeli checkpoint that is framed by the towering cement slabs of Israel’s separation barrier.
It’s morning rush hour in Ras Khamis, a neglected, restive Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem where President Donald Trump’s recent recognition of the contested city as Israel’s capital has been met by cynicism, defiance and new fears that Palestinians will increasingly be marginalized.
Trump’s pivot on Jerusalem “is regrettable, saddening and unfair,” said Yasser Khatib, 42, who runs a supermarket across the street from the barrier that separates several Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem from the rest of the city.
Khatib said he has strong religious ties to the city and that his family’s roots go back generations. “We have no life without Jerusalem,” he said as he sold snacks to school children. “Trump can say whatever he wants.”
Palestinians make up 37 percent of Jerusalem’s population of 866,000, up from 26 percent in 1967 when Israel captured east Jerusalem, expanded the city’s boundaries into the West Bank and annexed the enlarged municipal area to its capital.
The international community says east Jerusalem is occupied territory and that the city’s fate must be determined in negotiations with the Palestinians who seek a capital in the eastern sector.
Trump couched his Jerusalem comments — viewed in the Arab world as a show of pro-Israel bias — by saying he is not taking a position on the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city.
Yet he made no specific mention of the city’s large Palestinian population, which could reach 44 percent by 2040, according to the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research think tank.
Despite Israel’s portrayal of Jerusalem as united, there are stark differences between Arab and Jewish areas after what critics say is half a century of neglect and discrimination.
“On the ground, Israel is not investing much in developing the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem,” said Yitzhak Reiter, in charge of the Jerusalem Institute’s mapping of the physical and social infrastructure of Arab neighborhoods.
In many spheres, “the city is still divided, with two different transport systems, two different policies on building and construction.”
Israel would have to invest billions of dollars in Arab areas to reach parity with Jewish neighborhoods, he said.
For now, 79 percent of Arab residents fall below the poverty line, compared to 27 percent of Jews, according to Jerusalem Institute figures.
Welfare services maintain four offices in the Arab east, compared to 19 offices in Jewish areas, said the Association for Civil Rights in Israel. Arab schools have a shortage of hundreds of classrooms, ACRI said. The west has 34 post offices, compared to nine in the east.
Mayor Nir Barkat’s office said he developed a plan “unprecedented in scope and budget allocation to reduce gaps in east Jerusalem” and made progress in alleviating “50 years of neglect” inherited from predecessors. Among other things, the city opened more than 800 classrooms in Arab schools, with 1,000 more in the pipeline, the statement said.
ACRI said the added classrooms included many spaces rented in existing residential buildings.
Jerusalem is the largest mixed city in the Holy Land, and Arabs and Jews interact in daily life, including in malls and hospitals. Many Palestinians work in shops and restaurants in west Jerusalem, typically earning more there than on the east side.
Yet east-west infrastructure gaps remain wide.
Israel may be unwilling to invest heavily in areas that could one day come under Palestinian rule, said Reiter, adding that efforts to maintain a strong Jewish majority may also play a role.
Palestinians claim Israel is trying to drive Arabs out of Jerusalem.
Ziad Hammouri, a community organizer, said Trump’s new position on Jerusalem boosts Israel’s attempts to “control east Jerusalem and to exclude Palestinians from Jerusalem.”
One plan floated by a Cabinet minister — and opposed by Barkat — would place tens of thousands of Palestinians who live inside the municipal boundaries but beyond the separation barrier under a new Israeli-run municipality, thus sharply reducing the number of Palestinians counted as Jerusalemites.
These areas, including Ras Khamis, have seen apartment towers rise in recent years as Israel stopped enforcing building restrictions there.
East Jerusalemites desperate for housing moved there in large numbers, despite fears that they would eventually be “zoned out” of Jerusalem.
On the “Jerusalem side” of the barrier, it’s difficult for Palestinians to obtain building permits, because of lack of outline plans or discriminatory zoning, said Israeli rights groups. Many Palestinians built without permits, and 88 homes were demolished in 2016, the most in a decade, ACRI said.
Barkat’s office said a low share of permit application come from Arab neighborhoods, and that a high percentage of those are approved.
Since 1967, Israel has built large neighborhoods for Jews in the annexed east, now home to 212,000 Israelis.
Palestinian Ismail Siam said a one-story home he built on his land for two adult children was demolished by Israel twice in 14 months, on grounds that he did not have a building permit.
“They want to expel us from the city,” said Siam, 54, standing near patches of floor tiles left from the demolished house.
The plot faces large construction sites for Jewish neighborhoods across a ravine.
Most Palestinians in Jerusalem have residency status.
After 1967, most Palestinians didn’t consider the more secure citizenship option, which would have meant recognizing Israeli rule. In recent years, growing numbers have applied, but increasingly encountered bureaucratic hurdles.
Prolonged absence can put Palestinian residents at risk of expulsion; close to 15,000 have been stripped of residency rights since 1967.
Palestinians in the city can vote in local elections, but have largely refrained from doing so, to avoid the perception that they accept Israeli rule.
East Jerusalem residents also feel increasingly abandoned by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank self-rule government. Israel clamps down on Palestinian Authority activities in Jerusalem, limiting Abbas’ influence in the city.
The leadership vacuum was briefly filled over the summer when Muslim clerics led a successful grassroots campaign against metal detectors Israel had installed at east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Islam’s third-holiest shrine, built on the remnants of Judaism’s holiest site, is a frequent flashpoint of violence.
After Trump’s decision, city residents mounted only small protests, compared to larger marches in the West Bank and elsewhere.
Activist Yara Hawari said rallying large crowds is difficult when there is no narrow objective, such as removing the metal detectors.
“What we are asking is simple, an end to colonization,” she said. “But it’s not as tangible.”
Palestinians, a large Jerusalem minority, feel Trump snub
Palestinians, a large Jerusalem minority, feel Trump snub
Tens killed, wounded in Israeli strike on residential building in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya, medics say
- The Gaza health ministry said 43,799 people have been confirmed dead since Oct. 7, 2023
There was no immediate figure of how many people were killed. The Palestinian Civil Emergency said around 70 people have lived in the property.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
The Israeli army sent tanks into Beit Lahiya and the nearby towns of Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, the largest of the Gaza Strip’s eight historic refugee camps, last month in what it said was a campaign to fight Hamas militants waging attacks and prevent them from regrouping.
It said it has for killed hundreds of militants in those three areas, which residents said Israeli forces had isolated from Gaza City.
Earlier on Sunday, an Israeli air strike killed at least 10 people in the Bureij camp in central Gaza Strip, when a missile hit a house, medics said.
The Gaza health ministry said 43,799 people have been confirmed dead since Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 Israelis that day, and still hold dozens of some 250 hostages they took back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Israeli strike hits south Beirut after evacuation warning
- Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on X warned residents near the three target sites to leave
BEIRUT: A strike hit Beirut’s southern suburbs on Sunday morning, AFPTV footage showed, after the Israeli military issued evacuation warnings for three sites, a day after a series of raids on the area.
AFPTV images showed a column of smoke rising over the suburbs, already veiled in smoke from the previous day’s bombardment, after Israeli military spokesman Avichay Adraee on X warned residents near the three target sites to leave the areas.
Israel issued evacuation orders earlier where it is targeting Hezbollah militants, hours after the Iran-backed group said it fired on several Israeli military bases around the coastal city of Haifa.
Further south, overnight Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling hit the flashpoint southern town of Khiam, some six kilometers (four miles) from the border, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported early Sunday.
The bombardment came after Israel’s military reported a “heavy rocket barrage” on Haifa late Saturday and said a synagogue was hit, wounding two civilians.
Israel has escalated its bombing of Lebanon since September 23 and has since sent in ground troops, following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in support of Hamas in Gaza.
In the Palestinian territory, where Hamas’s attack on Israel triggered the war, the civil defense agency reported 24 people killed in strikes Saturday.
Security services in Israel said two flares landed near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in the town of Caesarea, south of Haifa, but he was not home.
The incident comes about a month after a drone targeted the same residence, which Hezbollah claimed.
Israel’s military chief said Saturday Hezbollah had already “paid a big price”, but Israel will keep fighting until tens of thousands of its residents displaced from the north can return safely.
AFPTV footage showed fresh strikes Saturday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, after Israel’s military told residents to leave.
The Israeli military said aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command center”.
Hezbollah fired around 80 projectiles at Israel on Saturday, the military said.
Israeli forces also shelled the area along the Litani River, which flows across southern Lebanon, NNA said Sunday.
The agency earlier reported strikes on the southern city of Tyre, including in a neighborhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins. Israel’s military late Saturday said it had hit Hezbollah facilities in the Tyre area.
In Lebanon’s east, the health ministry said an Israeli strike in the Bekaa Valley killed six people including three children.
Hezbollah said it fired a guided missile that set an Israeli tank ablaze in the southwest Lebanon village of Shamaa, about five kilometers from the border.
Late Saturday, Hezbollah said it had targeted five military bases including the Stella Maris naval base.
Israeli military reports soldier killed in battle north of Gaza on Saturday
CAIRO: The Israeli military said on Sunday that a fighter in the Nachshon Regiment (90), Kfir Brigade, was killed in battle north of Gaza on Saturday.
Israel pummels south Beirut as Hezbollah targets Haifa area
- Israel’s military reported “heavy rocket barrage” on Haifa, saying synagogue was hit
- Lebanese authorities say over 3,452 people have been killed since October last year
BEIRUT: Israel launched a wave of air strikes on Hezbollah bastions in Beirut and south Lebanon on Saturday, as the Iran-backed militants said they fired on several Israeli military bases around the coastal city of Haifa.
Israel’s military reported a “heavy rocket barrage” on Haifa and said a synagogue was hit, injuring two civilians.
Since September 23, Israel has escalated its bombing of targets in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops after almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges of fire begun by Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in support of Hamas in Gaza.
In the Palestinian territory, where Hamas’s attack on Israel triggered the war, the civil defense agency reported 24 people killed in strikes on Saturday.
Security services in Israel said two flares landed near Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in the town of Caesarea, south of Haifa, but he was not home.
The incident comes about a month after a drone targeted the same residence, which Hezbollah claimed.
Israel’s military chief, in comments issued Saturday, said Hezbollah has already “paid a big price” but Israel will keep fighting until tens of thousands of its residents displaced from the north can return safely.
“We will continue to fight, to implement plans, to go further, conduct deep strikes, and hit Hezbollah very hard,” Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said on a visit earlier in the week to the Kfar Kila area of south Lebanon.
AFPTV footage showed fresh strikes Saturday on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, after Israel’s military called on residents to evacuate.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a series of strikes.
The Israeli military said aircraft had targeted “a weapons storage facility” and a Hezbollah “command center.”
The NNA also reported strikes on the southern city of Tyre, including in a neighborhood near UNESCO-listed ancient ruins. Israel’s military late Saturday said it had hit Hezbollah facilities in the Tyre area.
In Lebanon’s east, the health ministry said an Israeli strike in the Bekaa Valley killed six people including three children.
Hezbollah said it fired a guided missile which set an Israeli tank ablaze in the southwest Lebanon village of Shamaa, about five kilometers (three miles) from the border.
Late Saturday, after Israel reported the rocket barrage on Haifa, Hezbollah said it had targeted five military bases, including the Stella Maris naval base which it said it fired on earlier in the day.
In eastern Lebanon, funerals were held for 14 civil defense staff killed in an Israeli strike on Thursday.
“They weren’t involved with any (armed) party... they were just waiting to answer calls for help,” said Ali Al-Zein, a relative of one of the dead.
Lebanese authorities say more than 3,452 people have been killed since October last year, with most casualties recorded since September.
Israel announced the death of a soldier in southern Lebanon, bringing to 48 the number killed in fighting with Hezbollah.
In Hamas-run Gaza, the Israeli military said it continued operations in the northern areas of Jabalia and Beit Lahia, the targets of an intense offensive since early October.
Israel said its renewed operations aimed to stop Hamas from regrouping.
A UN-backed assessment on November 9 warned famine was imminent in northern Gaza, amid the increased hostilities and a near-halt in food aid.
Israel has pushed back against a 172-page Human Rights Watch report this week that said its displacement of Gazans amounts to a “crime against humanity,” as well as findings from a UN Special Committee that pointed to warfare practices that “are consistent with the characteristics of genocide.”
A foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the HRW report as “completely false,” while the United States — Israel’s main military supplier — said accusations of genocide “are certainly unfounded.”
The Gaza health ministry on Saturday said the overall death toll in more than 13 months of war has reached 43,799.
The majority of the dead are civilians, according to ministry figures which the United Nations considers reliable.
In Rafah, southern Gaza, Jamil Al-Masry told AFP a house was hit, causing “a massive explosion.”
“We went to the house, only to find it in ruins, with fire raging and smoke and dust everywhere.”
Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Demonstrators in Tel Aviv on Saturday reiterated demands that the government reach a deal to free dozens of hostages still held in Gaza.
The protest came a week after mediator Qatar suspended its role until Hamas and Israel show “seriousness” in truce and hostage-release talks.
In a rare claim of responsibility for a strike on Syria, Israel said it targeted the Islamic Jihad group on Thursday.
A statement from the group on Saturday confirmed that “prominent leader” Abdel Aziz Minawi and external relations chief Rasmi Yusuf Abu Issa were killed in the air raid on Qudsaya, in the Damascus area.
Islamic Jihad still holds several Israeli hostages taken during the October 7 attack.
Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad are all backed by Israel’s arch-enemy Iran, which said Friday it supported a swift end to the nearly two-month war in Lebanon.
With diplomacy aimed at ending the Gaza war stalled, a top government official in Beirut said on Friday that US ambassador Lisa Johnson had presented a 13-point proposal to halt the Israel-Hezbollah conflict.
It includes a 60-day truce, during which Lebanon will deploy troops to the border. The official added that Israel has yet to respond to the plan.
UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan
- Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the army under de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and paramilitary forces led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo
LONDON: The UK on Sunday announced a £113 million ($143 million) aid boost to support more than one million people affected by the war in Sudan, doubling its current package.
The new funding will be targeted at the 600,000 people in Sudan and 700,000 people in neighboring countries who have fled the conflict.
“The brutal conflict in Sudan has caused unimaginable suffering. The people of Sudan need more aid, which is why the UK is helping to provide much-needed food, shelter and education for the most vulnerable,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a government press release.
“The UK will never forget Sudan,” he vowed.
Fighting broke out in April 2023 between the army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Last month, United Nations experts accused the warring sides of using “starvation tactics” against 25 million civilians, and three major aid organizations warned of a “historic” hunger crisis as families resort to eating leaves and insects.
Lammy is due to visit the UN Security Council on Monday, where his ministry said he will call on the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to keep the vital Adre border crossing open indefinitely to allow aid deliveries.
“We cannot deliver aid without access. Starvation must not be used as a weapon of war,” he said.
The new funding package will support UN and NGO partners in providing food, money, shelter, medical assistance, water and sanitation, said the Foreign Office.
Deaths in the conflict are likely to be “substantially underreported,” according to a study published this week, which found more casualties in Khartoum State alone than current empirical estimates for the whole country.
