GAZA STRIP: Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of medical workers in white uniforms, took part Saturday in the funeral procession of a colleague who was shot dead by Israeli troops the previous day along the Israel-Gaza border.
Relatives say 21-year-old Razan Najjar was a volunteer paramedic who had helped evacuate and treat the wounded during weeks of cross-border violence. She is just the second female fatality out of more than 115 killed since the deadly border protest campaign began in late March.
After the funeral, dozens of mourners headed to the fence and started throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers on the other side. The Palestinian Health Ministry said five protesters were wounded by Israeli fire.
Later Saturday, in a development that threatens to collapse an informal cease-fire, the Israeli military said two projectiles were fired from Gaza. One was intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system and the other landed inside Gaza. Earlier this week, a large barrage was fired at Israel, which responded with heavy strikes against Gaza installations.
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, the Israeli military said its troops shot dead a Palestinian who tried to ram a tractor into its forces.
The military said its initial investigation revealed that a 35-year-old Palestinian from a village near Hebron tried to run over an officer with a Bobcat tractor. The attacker then turned around and tried to attack nearby Israeli civilians, the military said.
It said a soldier opened fire, killing the assailant. No Israeli troops were harmed.
Since 2015, Palestinians have killed over 50 Israelis, two visiting Americans and a British tourist in stabbings, shootings and car-ramming attacks. Over 260 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in that time. Israel says most were attackers. The attacks have petered off in recent months as the Palestinian focus has shifted toward mass protests at the Gaza border.
On Friday, the Palestinians protested for the 10th week in a row. The military said some hurled grenades and pipe bombs at troops behind the security fence. Some 40 Palestinians were wounded and Najjar was the only one killed.
The Khan Younis hospital said Najjar had a gunshot wound in the chest with an exit wound in the back.
The military said its troops operated “in accordance with standard operating procedures” and that it was investigating the incident. Israel insists that throughout the weeks-long campaign it has only opened fire at instigators and that Hamas has been cynically using the demonstrations as cover to carry out attacks.
On Saturday, the military said it thwarted a Palestinian attempt to damage the security fence surrounding Gaza and a group of activists briefly entered Israel before fleeing back into Gaza when Israeli troops opened fire.
However, Palestinians and human rights groups have accused Israeli forces of using excessive force on some occasions, and of killing Palestinians who did not pose an imminent threat both in the West Bank and Gaza.
Najjar’s body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag as the funeral procession started from the hospital and passed near her home in Khuzaa, a village near the Khan Younis that is close to the border and has served as one of five protest encampments across Gaza in recent weeks. She was the eldest of six siblings.
“I want the world to hear my voice ... what’s my daughter’s fault?” asked her mother Sabreen, dressed in black and seated on a mattress in her living room. “She will leave a large emptiness at home.”
On May 14, when the protests peaked over the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem, a 14-year-old girl, Wessal Sheikh Khalil, was the first female protesters to be shot dead. She was among more than 60 people killed that day, the deadliest since a war between Hamas and Israel ended in 2014.
The Gaza protests are being organized by the territory’s Hamas leadership and are aimed at drawing attention to the decade-long Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the territory. The protesters are also demanding the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants.
Fares Al-Kidra, a colleague of Najjar, said they were approaching the fence to evacuate a wounded man and, as they were leaving, three gunshots were heard and Najjar fell to the ground.
Al-Mezan, a Gaza-based rights group, said Najjar was 100 meters from the fence and wearing a clearly marked paramedic’s vest when she was shot.
Social media videos, and one captured by Associated Press footage, showed Najjar and a cohort of medics walking toward the fence and raising their hands to reach a wounded man lying on the ground. Najjar wore a dark blue headscarf and a white coat with the logo of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society, where she volunteered.
Izzat Shatat, 23, a volunteering ambulance worker, said he and Najjar were set to announce their engagement at the end of the holy month of Ramadan. He said he was worried and asked her not to go to the border area Friday but she refused.
“She helped all people. She has never refused to help. She was the first to run toward anybody when he is shot,” he said in tears.
Protests resume after Palestinian paramedic’s Gaza funeral
Protests resume after Palestinian paramedic’s Gaza funeral
- Thousands of Palestinians attend the funeral of a young female volunteer medic killed by Israeli fire in southern Gaza
- Razan al-Najjar, 21, a volunteer with the Gaza health ministry, was fatally shot in the chest near Khan Yunis on Friday
EU medical aid crosses into Syria from Turkiye
ISTANBUL: Some 55 tonnes of EU-funded medical supplies entered northwestern Syria from Turkiye on Thursday, a UN health official said.
Part of an EU air bridge to Syria, the supplies crossed Turkiye’s southern Cilvegozu border post and were taken to a warehouse in the northwestern city of Idlib, Mrinalini Santhanam of the World Health Organization said.
“There’s one more air bridge, and it is planned for February,” she said, adding that it was “still in the planning stages” with talks “to determine the volume and the scale.”
The supplies, distributed to Idlib and the Aleppo region health care centers, are part of an EU humanitarian bridge announced by Brussels on Dec. 13.
The aim is to support Syria’s battered healthcare system following the ouster of Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.
Included in the shipment were 8,000 emergency surgical kits, anesthetic supplies, IV fluids, sterilization materials, and medications to prevent disease outbreaks, the WHO said.
The civil war, which broke out in 2011, devastated Syria’s health care system, with “almost half of the hospitals (there) not functional,” WHO planning analyst Lorenzo Dal Monte said in late December.
He said the 50-tonne shipment from Dubai included “mainly trauma and surgical kits.”
Another five tonnes of supplies were brought in from another stockpile in Demark, including emergency health kits as well as winter clothing and water purification tablets, the WHO said.
Polish government to protect Israel's Netanyahu from arrest if he attends Auschwitz event
- It remains unclear if Netanyahu wanted to attend the event
- The Polish government vowed to ensure the safe participation of Israeli representatives
WARSAW: The Polish government adopted a resolution on Thursday vowing to ensure the free and safe participation of the highest representatives of Israel — including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who choose to attend commemorations for the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau later in January.
Netanyahu became an internationally wanted suspect last year after the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world’s top war crimes court, issued an arrest warrant for him in connection with the war in the Gaza Strip, accusing him of crimes against humanity over the death of more than 45,000 Palestinians, the majority of them women and children, since October 2023.
“The Polish government treats the safe participation of the leaders of Israel in the commemorations on January 27, 2025, as part of paying tribute to the Jewish nation,” read the resolution published by the office of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The government published the statement after Polish President Andrzej Duda asked Tusk to ensure that Netanyahu can attend without the risk of being arrested.
There had been reports suggesting that the ICC arrest warrant could prevent Netanyahu from traveling to Poland to attend observances marking the anniversary of the liberation in 1945 of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp by Soviet forces on Jan. 27.
Member countries of the ICC, such as Poland, are required to detain suspects facing a warrant if they set foot on their soil, but the court has no way to enforce that. Israel is not a member of the ICC and disputes its jurisdiction.
The court has more than 120 member states, though some countries, including France, have already said they would not arrest Netanyahu.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán even said he would defy the warrant by inviting him to Hungary.
It was not even clear if Netanyahu wanted to attend the event. The Polish Foreign Ministry said earlier Thursday that it has not received any information indicating that Netanyahu will attend the event.
US, French troops could secure Syria’s northern border, Syrian Kurdish official says
- Turkiye regards the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish PKK militants
- Ilham Ahmed: ‘We ask the French to send troops to this border to secure the demilitarised zone, to help us protect the region and establish good relations with Turkiye’
PARIS: Talks are taking place on whether US and French troops could secure a border zone in northern Syria as part of efforts to defuse conflict between Turkiye and Western-backed Kurdish Syrian forces, a senior Syrian Kurdish official said.
Ankara has warned that it will carry out a cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia if the group does not meet Turkish demands.
Turkiye regards the YPG, which spearheads the US-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish PKK militants who for 40 years have waged an insurgency against the Turkish state.
The SDF played an important role in defeating Daesh in Syria in 2014-17. The group still guards Daesh fighters in prison camps there, but has been on the back foot since rebels ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad on Dec. 8.
French President Emmanuel Macron said earlier this week that Paris would not abandon the SDF, which was one among a myriad of opposition forces during Syria’s 13-year-long civil war.
“The United States and France could indeed secure the entire border. We are ready for this military coalition to assume this responsibility,” Ilham Ahmed, co-chair of foreign affairs for the Kurdish administration in northern territory outside central Syrian government control, was quoted as saying by TV5 Monde.
“We ask the French to send troops to this border to secure the demilitarised zone, to help us protect the region and establish good relations with Turkiye.”
Neither France nor Turkiye’s foreign ministries immediately responded to requests for comment. The US State Department was not immediately available for comment.
It is unclear how receptive Turkiye would be to such an initiative, given Ankara has worked for years to secure its border against threats coming from Syria, and has vowed to destroy the YPG.
“As soon as France has convinced Turkiye to accept its presence on the border, then we can start the peace process,” Ahmed said. “We hope that everything will be settled in the coming weeks.”
A source familiar with the matter said such talks were going on, but declined to say how advanced or realistic they were.
Washington has been brokering ceasefire efforts between Turkish-backed groups and the SDF after fighting that broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew Assad.
Addressing a news conference in Paris alongside outgoing US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot hinted that there were talks on the issue.
“The Syrian Kurds must find their place in this political transition. We owe it to them because they were our brothers in arms against Islamic State,” Barrot said.
“We will continue our efforts ... to ensure that Turkiye’s legitimate security concerns can be guaranteed, but also the security interests of (Syria’s) Kurds and their full rights to take part in the construction in the future of their country.”
Blinken said it was vital to ensure that the SDF forces continued the job of guarding more than 10,000 detained Daesh militants as this was a legitimate security interest for both the US and Turkiye.
“We have been working very closely with our ally ... Turkiye to navigate this transition ... It’s a process that will take some time,” Blinken said.
The US has about 2,000 troops in Syria who have been working with the SDF to prevent a resurgence of Daesh.
A French official said France still has dozens of special forces on the ground dating from its earlier support of the SDF, when Paris provided weapons and training.
Macron to head to Lebanon after election of new president
- France “will continue to be at the side of Lebanon and its people,” Macron told Aoun in a telephone call
- France administered Lebanon for two decades after World War I and has maintained close ties even since its independence in 1944
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday welcomed the “crucial election” by Lebanese lawmakers of army chief Joseph Aoun as president and said he would soon visit the country.
Macron spoke with the general hours after Aoun was announced as the leader to end a two-year vacuum in the country’s top post.
France “will continue to be at the side of Lebanon and its people,” Macron told Aoun in a telephone call, the French presidency said in a statement. Macron said he would go to Lebanon “very soon.”
“Congratulations to President Joseph Aoun on this crucial election,” Macron wrote on X earlier.
“It paves the way for reform and the restoration of Lebanon’s sovereignty and prosperity,” he added.
Aoun must oversee a ceasefire in south Lebanon and name a prime minister able to lead reforms demanded by international creditors to save the country from a severe economic crisis.
“The head of state indicated to President Aoun that France would support his efforts to quickly complete the formation of a government capable of uniting the Lebanese, answering their aspirations and their needs, and carrying out the reforms necessary for the economic recovery, reconstruction, security and sovereignty of Lebanon,” said the statement released after the telephone talks.
Macron also vowed support for the “national dialogue” that Aoun said he will launch and called on all groups to “contribute to the success of his mission,” the statement said.
France administered Lebanon for two decades after World War I and has maintained close ties even since its independence in 1944.
Israel rallies global support to win release of a woman believed kidnapped in Iraq
- The official said Thursday that the matter was raised in a meeting of special envoys for hostage affairs in Jerusalem this week
- Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations
JERUSALEM: A senior Israeli official says the government is working with allies in a renewed push to win the freedom of an Israeli-Russian researcher who is believed to have been kidnapped in Iraq nearly two years ago.
The official said Thursday that the matter was raised in a meeting of special envoys for hostage affairs in Jerusalem this week.
He said the envoys met the family of Elizabeth Tsurkov and that Israel asked the representatives – from the US, UK, Germany, Austria and Canada – to have their embassies in Baghdad lobby the Iraqi government and search for a way to start negotiations. Israel and Iraq do not have diplomatic relations. He said he hopes other countries will help.
“We are counting on our allies,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was discussing closed-door discussions. “And I hope that other nations will suggest assistance in helping us release Elizabeth. Many nations have embassies and contacts with the Iraqi government.”
Tsurkov, a 38-year-old student at Princeton University, disappeared in Baghdad in March 2023 while doing research for her doctorate. She had entered the country on her Russian passport. The only sign she was alive has been a video broadcast in November 2023 on an Iraqi television station and circulated on pro-Iranian social media purporting to show her.
No group has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. But Israel believes she is being held by Kataib Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that it says also has ties to the Iraqi government.
The Israeli official said that after months of covert efforts, Israel believes the “changes in the region” have created an opportunity to work publicly for her release.
During 15 months of war, Israel has struck Iran and its allies, and Iran’s regional influence has diminished. Iraq also appears to have pressured militia groups into halting their aerial attacks against Israel.
