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Palestinians set up outpost near hamlet Israel seeks to raze

A Palestinian Bedouin pupil walks in the courtyard of their primary school in the village of Khan Al-Ahmar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on September 6, 2018, after Israel’s top court upheld an order to raze the village. (AFP)
Updated 12 September 2018
AP
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Palestinians set up outpost near hamlet Israel seeks to raze

  • Israel says Khan Al-Ahmar was illegally built and has offered to resettle residents 12 kilometers away
  • Critics say its removal is meant to make room for an Israeli settlement
Updated 12 September 2018
AP

RAMALLAH: A top official said Tuesday the Palestinians have filed a new complaint against Israel with the International Criminal Court, after the US said it would resort to any means to protect its allies against such actions at the international war crimes body.

The move comes a day after the US closed the Palestinian de facto embassy in Washington because of its leaders’ refusal to enter peace talks with Israel. National security adviser John Bolton also lashed out at the Palestinians for their attempts to have Israel prosecuted at the ICC, denouncing the court’s legitimacy and threatening sanctions if it targeted Israel and others.

But at a press conference in Ramallah, Saeb Erekat doubled down by saying the Palestinians have asked the ICC to investigate Israel’s planned demolition of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al Ahmar in the West Bank. He also indicated the Palestinians plan to join other international bodies.

Erekat said the Palestinians have asked the chief prosecutor to meet with village representatives and include Israel’s actions as part of her investigation into possible war crimes by Israel.

“The US threats against the ICC are a coup against the rules in the international system,” he said. “The Trump administration wants to dismantle the international order to ensure that it can stay above the laws and escape accountability.”

Israel has long denounced Palestinian efforts to globalize their conflict by turning to external bodies with bogus claims. In particular, it says the ICC lacks jurisdiction because Israel is not a member of the court.

The Trump administration dramatically ratchetted up its rhetoric by threatening sanctions if the court pursues investigations against the US,  Israel or other allies. John Bolton said the ICC “is already dead” to the US.

“The United States supports a direct and robust peace process, and we will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense,” he said in a speech to The Federalist Society, a conservative, Washington-based think tank.

The administration also cited the refusal of Palestinian leaders to enter into peace talks with Israel as the reason for closing the Palestine Liberation Organization office in Washington, although the US has yet to present its plan to resolve the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

The Palestinians accuse the administration of dismantling decades of US engagement with them by blatantly siding with Israel.

The closure of the PLO office was the latest in a series of moves targeting the Palestinians. Just last month, it canceled more than $200 million in aid for projects in the West Bank and Gaza as well as the remainder of its planned assistance for the UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees around the Middle East. Over the weekend, it announced it would cut $25 million in assistance for hospitals in East Jerusalem that provide critical care to Palestinian patients.

“We don’t want confrontation with the US,  by the way, but how can anyone with all these American decisions, Trump’s decisions, believe that these people can be honest brokers, facilitators in any peace process? They are no longer partners in the peace process,” Erekat said.

He said Israel should be held accountable for its plans for the Khan Al-Ahmar encampment, a West Bank hamlet that has focused attention on what critics say is the displacement of Palestinians by Israel. European countries urged Israel this week to refrain from demolition.

Israel says Khan Al-Ahmar was illegally built and has offered to resettle residents 12 kilometers (7 miles) away. But critics say it’s impossible for Palestinians to get building permits and that the demolition is meant to make room for an Israeli settlement.

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected an appeal last week, paving the way for demolition.

Palestinian activists put up several trailers early Tuesday in protest. Abdallah Abu Rahmeh said the white shipping containers, one with a Palestinian flag, were a message to Israel that “it’s our right to build on our land.”

Meanwhile, the Palestinian envoy to Washington said his staffers have been given a month to pack up after the US punished them for what the State Department called the Palestinian leadership condemnation of “a US peace plan they have not yet seen.”

Husam Zomlot told The Associated Press the closure of the PLO mission would not deter Palestinians from seeking a state with east Jerusalem as the capital.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas halted ties with the Trump administration in December after the US recognized contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The US Embassy was later moved there from Tel Aviv.

Zomlot was called home by Abbas in the spring as part of the crisis.

 

Topics: Palestine Israel Khan Al-Ahmar

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Israeli settler group slams US sanctions over West Bank

Updated 9 sec ago
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Israeli settler group slams US sanctions over West Bank

Updated 9 sec ago
A statement by the group said the sanctions “result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements“
“Had the US administration bothered to verify the claims... it would have found them to be factually unfounded and refrained from taking action against us”

JERUSALEM: Israeli organization Amana, a movement that backs developing settlements in the occupied West Bank, on Tuesday denounced sanctions imposed on it by the United States the previous day.
A statement by the group said the sanctions “result from baseless slander directed at Amana by hostile and extremist elements.”
“Had the US administration bothered to verify the claims... it would have found them to be factually unfounded and refrained from taking action against us,” the statement said.
US authorities said Monday they would impose sanctions on Amana and its construction branch Binyanei Bar Amana, as well as others who have “ties to violent actors in the West Bank.”
“Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the US government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank,” the US Treasury said.
“More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land,” it added.
All settlements in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, are illegal under international law.
Settlement outposts are built by private actors including Amana, and are also illegal under Israeli law.
The new sanctions will block Amana assets in the United States and prevent financial transactions between it and US-based individuals and institutions.
Several Israeli settlers have already been the target of US sanctions.
Amana was founded in 1979 to develop the Jewish presence in the West Bank, the northern Israel region of Galilee and in the Negev region in the south.
It has founded and developed dozens of settlements and settlement outposts since then.
“We are confident that with the change of administration in Washington, and with proper and necessary action by the Israeli government, all sanctions will be lifted,” Amana said Tuesday of US President-elect Donald Trump’s perceived leniency toward Israeli actions.
Yossi Dagan, Shomron Regional Council president, in charge of settlements in the northern West Bank, called the sanctions move “the final act of the Biden administration, which is cynical and hostile toward the Near East’s only democracy.”
Violence in the West Bank, particularly in the north, has soared since the war in the Gaza Strip broke out on October 7 last year after Palestinian militants Hamas attacked southern Israel.
The UN office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs (OCHA), said in its latest report that 300 incidents involving settlers occurred in the West Bank between October 1 and November 4.
Not counting annexed east Jerusalem, about 490,000 settlers live in the West Bank, which is home to three million Palestinians.

French minister on Gulf tour says Lebanon’s army needs support

Updated 10 min 33 sec ago
AFP
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French minister on Gulf tour says Lebanon’s army needs support

  • “I have reiterated to each counterpart that we need them to support the Lebanese armed forces,” Sebastien Lecornu said
  • “We will have to think about more operational support on the military side“
Updated 10 min 33 sec ago
AFP

ABU DHABI: France’s defense minister said Lebanon’s armed forces need more support as he completed a Gulf tour on Tuesday, saying they will be crucial for securing border areas after Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
As efforts toward a ceasefire increase, Sebastien Lecornu told AFP that he had raised the prospect of “operational support” for the Lebanese armed forces during his trip.
“I have reiterated to each counterpart that we need them to support the Lebanese armed forces,” he said after visits to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
“Both in the central role they play in welfare matters, and in the security aspect. We will have to think about more operational support on the military side.”
Lecornu was speaking in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi before meeting President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed at the end of his three-country tour.
Diplomatic efforts are intensifying to secure a ceasefire based on United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel.
The resolution called for the deployment of Lebanese government forces and United Nations peacekeeping force UNIFIL in areas south of Lebanon’s Litani River near the Israeli border, as well as the withdrawal of Israeli forces.
“There isn’t a better solution at this stage than to respect Resolution 1701 and to support the Lebanese armed forces,” Lecornu said.
But “to secure the border between Israel and Lebanon, and to reinforce Lebanon’s sovereignty, the armed forces must be properly armed,” he added.
The Lebanese army is envisioned as having a greater role in maintaining stability along the border in the event of a ceasefire, though it currently struggles to meet the basic needs of its 80,000 soldiers.
It has previously received financial assistance from Qatar and the United States to pay salaries.
Last month, a conference in Paris raised $200 million to support the Lebanese armed forces, on top of $800 million in humanitarian aid for the country.
Israel expanded the focus of its operations from Gaza to Lebanon in late September, vowing to secure its northern border to allow tens of thousands of people displaced by cross-border fire to return home.
Since the clashes began with Hezbollah attacks on Israel, more than 3,510 people in Lebanon have been killed, according to authorities there, with most fatalities recorded since late September.
The Lebanese government says it is ready to deploy the army to the border to safeguard a ceasefire, and plans to recruit 1,500 more soldiers.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati said last month that 4,500 military personnel were in the south and that he wanted to raise their number to 7,000-11,000.
Lecornu’s tour also comes two weeks before French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Saudi Arabia for a visit focused on defense and investment in new technologies.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Sebastien Lecornu France

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Hamas-led force targets gangs looting Gaza aid convoys

Updated 44 min 9 sec ago
Reuters
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Hamas-led force targets gangs looting Gaza aid convoys

  • The new force has staged repeated operations, ambushing looters and killing some in armed clashes
  • After nearly 100 trucks were looted last week Hamas attacked an armed group gathering near a crossing where aid trucks usually enter
Updated 44 min 9 sec ago
Reuters

CAIRO: Fighters from Hamas and other Gaza factions have formed an armed force to prevent gangs pillaging aid convoys in the embattled territory, residents and sources close to the group said, after a big increase in the looting of scarce supplies.
Since being formed this month amid rising public anger at aid seizures and price gouging, the new force has staged repeated operations, ambushing looters and killing some in armed clashes, the sources said.
Hamas’ efforts to take a lead in securing aid supplies point to the difficulties Israel will face in a post-war Gaza, with few obvious alternatives to a group it has been trying to destroy for over a year and which it says can have no governing role.
Israel accuses Hamas of hijacking aid. The group denies that and accuses Israel of trying to foment anarchy in Gaza by targeting police guarding aid convoys.
A spokesperson for Israel’s military did not immediately respond to Reuters request for comment on Hamas units fighting looters.
Amid the chaos of the war, armed gangs have increasingly raided supply convoys, hijacking trucks and selling the looted stock in Gaza markets at exorbitant prices.
As well as driving anger at the Israeli military, the shortages had also prompted questions of Hamas for its seeming inability to stop the gangs.
“We are all against the bandits and looters so we can live and eat ... now you are obliged to buy from a thief,” said Diyaa Al-Nasara, speaking near a funeral for a Hamas fighter killed in clashes with looters.
The new anti-looting force, formed of well-equipped fighters from Hamas and allied groups, has been named “The Popular and Revolutionary Committees” and is ready to open fire on hijackers who do not surrender, one of the sources, a Hamas government official, said.
The official, who declined to be named because Hamas would not authorize him to speak about it, said the group operated across central and southern Gaza and had carried out at least 15 missions so far, including killing some armed gangsters.

WIDESPREAD HUNGER
Thirteen months into Israel’s devastating military campaign in Gaza, launched in response to the deadly Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, major shortages of food, medicine and other goods are causing widespread hunger and suffering among civilians.
Israel put commercial goods imports on hold last month and only aid trucks have entered Gaza since then, carrying a fraction of what relief groups say is needed for a territory where most people have lost their homes and have little money.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” said WHO spokesperson Margaret Harris after a series of looting incidents over the weekend.
Before the war, a sack of flour sold for $10 or $15 and a kilogram of milk powder for 30 shekels. Now the flour costs $100 and the milk powder 300 shekels, traders said.
Some people in Gaza say they want Hamas to target looters.
“There is a campaign against thieves, we see that. If the campaign continues and aid flows, the prices will go down because the stolen aid appears in the markets at high cost,” said Shaban, a displaced Gaza City engineer, now living in Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
After nearly 100 trucks were looted last week Hamas attacked an armed group gathering near a crossing where aid trucks usually enter, opened heavy fire, killing at least 20 of them, according to residents and the Hamas Aqsa television.
Witnesses described another firefight on Saturday when Hamas fighters in two cars chased men suspected of looting who were in another vehicle, resulting in the death of the suspects.
The Hamas official said the force showed that the group’s governance in Gaza continued.
“Hamas as a movement exists, whether someone likes it or not. Hamas as a government exists too, not as strong as it used to be, but it exists and its personnel are trying to serve the people everywhere in the areas of displacement,” he said.

Topics: War on Gaza

Israel army says soldier killed in combat in Lebanon

Updated 19 November 2024
AFP
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Israel army says soldier killed in combat in Lebanon

  • The sergeant was killed during combat in southern Lebanon, the army said
Updated 19 November 2024
AFP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli army said Tuesday that a soldier was killed in south Lebanon, where its troops have battled Hezbollah since late September after a year of cross-border exchanges of fire.
“Sergeant First Class (Reserve) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, aged 30, from Jerusalem, a soldier from the 5,111 Battalion, Golani Brigade, was killed during combat in southern Lebanon,” the army said, adding three other soldiers were wounded.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Israeli Army

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Three Palestinians killed in Israeli West Bank raid

Updated 19 November 2024
AFP
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Three Palestinians killed in Israeli West Bank raid

  • The three men were between 24 and 32 years old
  • Violence in the West Bank, particularly in the north, has soared since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 last year
Updated 19 November 2024
AFP

JENIN: Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli military operation near Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Israeli security forces said.
A joint statement from the army, police and Shin Bet security agency said the three militants died in an exchange of fire in Qabatiya village, where undercover border police attempted to arrest a wanted man.
The Israeli forces came under fire from a building where the suspect, Raed Hanaysha, was hiding, the statement said, before killing him and “two armed terrorists.”
The Israeli army said it seized weapons from the scene, “destroyed two bomb-making labs,” and that its forces were still active in the area.
“There are three bodies of martyrs that are now with the Israeli side, after they killed them,” local governor Kamal Abu Al-Rub said, citing the office in charge of liaising between Israeli and Palestinian authorities in the West Bank.
The Palestinian health ministry said the District Coordination Office had also informed it of the deaths of “three young men shot by Israeli forces near Qabatiya,” which is in the Jenin governorate.
The three men were between 24 and 32 years old, a ministry statement said, identifying Raed Hanaysha as one of the dead.
Israeli security forces said Hanaysha had been involved “in shooting and bombing attacks” recently against the army.
Violence in the West Bank, particularly in the north, has soared since the war in Gaza broke out on October 7 last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 771 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the same period in the West Bank, according to official Israeli figures.

Topics: Palestine

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