Jordan Valley farmers fear for the future as Israel’s West Bank annexation looms

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A Palestinian farmer contemplating a view of the Jordan Valley from the West Bank town of Majdal Bani Fadil. AFP
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Updated 26 June 2020
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Jordan Valley farmers fear for the future as Israel’s West Bank annexation looms

  • Palestinian prime minister approves steps to support farmers in Jordan Valley by paying their debts

GAZA CITY: Palestinian farmer Hamza Abu Thabet is becoming more and more worried about Israel’s plans to annex parts of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley, on the borders between the West Bank and Jordan.
He has lived in his village, Froosh Beit Dajan, in the Jordan Valley for three decades. But he is increasingly anxious over his and his family’s future, which he feels is under threat and shrouded in uncertainty.
Israel’s annexation project has been given the green light by the US as part of President Donald Trump’s Vision for Peace plan. It could start as early as July 1 and incorporate up to 30 percent of the West Bank into Israel. Much of this land is already host to Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law, but is claimed by Palestinians for a future independent state of their own.
Abu Thabet follows everything related to the annexation plan with great interest and on a daily basis. Six families work on his 20 dunums (20,000 sq. meters) of agricultural land.
“I hear everyday the news and updates of the plan, but the most important thing is that I and the Jordan Valley residents do not know what will happen to us,” he told Arab News. 
There are about 12,000 people in the Jordan Valley and most of them depend on agricultural work.
“Our lives are in the Jordan Valley and I cannot imagine living anywhere else,” said Abu Thabet, who inherited his trade from his father and grandfathers. “Over the years we have stood up in our homes and lands, despite the oppression, the Israeli aggressions, and the restrictions on us in all aspects of life. But today the matter has become vague and unknown, and we do not know what they are planning for us.”
He believed that the Palestinian Authority (PA) had a lot to do in order to strengthen the resilience of residents and farmers in the Jordan Valley in order to face the annexation plan, even though political agreements say that Israel controls the area and is responsible for its security.
On Wednesday, Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayeh approved steps to support farmers in the Jordan Valley by paying their debts, pumping water from PA-owned wells and providing investors with easy loans.
Abu Thabet said that the PA should help Jordan Valley residents by developing infrastructure, water and electricity networks.
The Jordan Valley, an area of 450 square kilometers, constitutes 25 percent of the West Bank’s total area. It suffers from severe Israeli restrictions that hinder development and prevent the construction of homes and schools.
This tough reality was summed up by another farmer, Ameed Hajj Muhammad. “The Jordan Valley has been effectively annexed and completely controlled by Israel since the 1967 defeat,” he told Arab News. “Israel controls every detail of our daily life.”
Hajj Muhammad said that dozens of Israeli settlements, camps and checkpoints were spreading in the Jordan Valley and ruining their lives.
He owns a 15-dunum area of agricultural land where he grows vegetables and flowers, but struggles with irrigation and also has difficulties marketing his crop.
The Jordan Valley farmers depend on sourcing water from wells dating back decades as Israel prevents them from drilling new ones.
Hajj Mohamed said it was not just the PA who had a responsibility to help farmers out. 
“Palestinians need to support us by consuming our products, such as vegetables, flowers and melons, so that the farmers can withstand the high costs resulting from the Israeli restrictions.”
Israel already controls 95 percent of the Jordan Valley area, according to Azim al-Hajj, who is director of the Agricultural Relief Association. Palestinian residents currently only benefit from 5 percent of the estimated 50,000 dunums of agricultural land.
Al-Hajj said that Israel’s most dangerous act against farmers and residents was denying them access to the 87 percent of water sources that it controlled.
Since the June 1967 war, Israel has issued 2,500 military laws to restrict Palestinian residents, and because of that, the population of Palestinians in the Jordan Valley has decreased from 250,000 to 12,000 over time.
The Jordan Valley has 36 Israeli settlements with a total population of 9,500 settlers, and most of these people work in agriculture.
Since 1967 the Israeli occupation has displaced more than 50,000 Palestinian residents from the Jordan Valley, sometimes entire communities, claiming that they live on military training grounds.
The annexation plan targets an area 10 to 15 km west of the Jordan River and includes dozens of villages and areas, according to Al-Hajj.
“What is required from the PA are real programs and a package of projects in the fields of agriculture, health and education. The results could be felt by residents in their daily life.”


Jordan’s trade surplus with US reached $1.23bn in 2024

Updated 59 min 8 sec ago
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Jordan’s trade surplus with US reached $1.23bn in 2024

  • Healthy Jordan-US trade relations highlighted by foreign trade data released by Department of Statistics

AMMAN: Jordan recorded a trade surplus of 877 million dinars ($1.23 billion) with the US in 2024, according to foreign trade data released by the Department of Statistics on Saturday.

The data, reported by the Jordan News Agency (Petra), highlighted significant growth in national exports to the US, which reached JD2.208 billion last year, up from JD1.958 billion in 2023 — an increase of 12.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the kingdom’s imports from the US market also saw a rise, reaching JD1.331 billion in 2024, compared to JD1.161 billion the previous year, marking an increase of 14.6 percent.

As a result, the total volume of trade between the two countries grew to JD3.539 billion, up from JD3.119 billion in 2023. National exports to the US accounted for 25.7 percent of Jordan’s total exports last year.

Speaking to Petra, Samer Judeh, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan, attributed this growth to the success of Jordanian products in penetrating the US market, benefiting from the Jordan-US Free Trade Agreement, which was fully implemented in 2010.

He noted that the agreement has contributed to an 800 percent increase in bilateral trade since its inception.

Judeh emphasized that enhancing exports and supporting national industries remain key priorities under Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision. He highlighted the private sector’s role in shaping policies and coordinating efforts to further strengthen trade ties with the American market.

To sustain this momentum, Judeh underscored the need to enhance the added value of Jordanian products, improve quality standards, diversify exports, and promote joint investments between Jordan and the US.

He also stressed the importance of institutional cooperation in training, marketing, and supply chain development to ensure long-term growth and boost the competitiveness of Jordanian exports in the US market.

And he pointed to the potential of high-value technical services driven by Jordan’s skilled workforce, which could play a crucial role in further expanding trade relations between the two nations.


UXO blast in Syria city kills four: state media

Updated 48 min 31 sec ago
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UXO blast in Syria city kills four: state media

  • “Four civilians were killed and nine injured in an explosion in a hardware store inside a four-story building,” SANA said
  • The blast was detonated when the scrap dealer mishandled an unexploded munition in an attempt to recover the metal

DAMASCUS: A blast in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia killed at least four people on Saturday, state media reported, adding that it was triggered by a scrap dealer mishandling unexploded ordnance.
“Four civilians were killed and nine injured in an explosion in a hardware store inside a four-story building” in the city’s Al-Rimal neighborhood, state news agency SANA said, adding that four of the injured were children.
The news agency said the blast was detonated when the scrap dealer mishandled an unexploded munition in an attempt to recover the metal.
Britain-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also described the blast as an “accident” resulting from a resident’s attempt to dismantle unexploded ordnance.
A resident of the city, Ward Jammoul, 32, told AFP that she heard a “loud blast,” adding that she “headed to the site and found a completely destroyed building.”
She said civil defense personnel and ambulances were present at the site, alongside “a large number of people who had gathered to look for those trapped under the rubble.”
An image carried by SANA showed a large plume of smoke rising over a populated neighborhood.
A report by non-governmental organization Humanity and Inclusion had warned last month of the dangers posed by unexploded munitions left over from the civil war that erupted in 2011.
It said experts estimated that between 100,000 and 300,000 of the roughly one million munitions used during the war had never detonated.


Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if truce agreement is implemented

Updated 15 March 2025
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Hamas says it will only release American-Israeli hostage if truce agreement is implemented

  • A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire’s second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days
  • Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages

CAIRO: Hamas said Saturday it will only release an American-Israeli and the bodies of four other hostages if Israel implements their ceasefire agreement, calling it an “exceptional deal” aimed at getting the truce back on track.
A senior Hamas official said long-delayed talks over the ceasefire’s second phase would need to begin the day of the release and last no longer than 50 days. Israel would also need to stop barring the entry of humanitarian aid and withdraw from a strategic corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt.
Hamas would also demand the release of more Palestinian prisoners in exchange for hostages, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks.
Edan Alexander, 21, who grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, was abducted from his military base during Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that ignited the war, and is the last living American citizen held in Gaza. Hamas still has a total of 59 hostages, 35 of whom are believed to be dead.
Two Israeli airstrikes in the northern town of Beit Lahiya near the border killed at least nine people, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Fares Awad, a local health official, identified one of the dead as local reporter Mahmoud Islim, who was operating a drone.
The Israeli military said it struck two people operating a drone that it said posed a threat to soldiers in the area. It said it launched another strike at a group of people who came to collect the drone equipment. The army identified all of those targeted as suspected militants, without providing evidence.
There has been no major fighting since the ceasefire took hold on Jan. 19, but Israeli strikes have killed dozens of Palestinians who the military said had entered unauthorized areas, engaged in militant activities or otherwise violated the truce.
Israel has cast doubt on Hamas’ offer
There was no immediate comment on Hamas’ offer from Israel, where government offices were closed for the weekly Sabbath. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Friday accused Hamas of “psychological warfare” after the initial offer, before the militant group spelled out the conditions.
The United States said it presented on Wednesday a proposal to extend the ceasefire a few more weeks as the sides negotiate a permanent truce. It said Hamas was claiming flexibility in public while privately making “entirely impractical” demands.
Negotiations continued in Egypt after senior Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya arrived in Cairo on Friday. Egypt and Qatar served as key mediators with Hamas in reaching the ceasefire and have continued to host talks aimed at getting it back on track.
Under the ceasefire agreement reached in January, Israel and Hamas were to begin negotiations over a second phase — in which Hamas would release all the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting truce — in early February, but so far only preparatory talks have been held.
After the first phase ended at the beginning of this month, Israel said it had agreed to a new US proposal in which Hamas would release half the remaining hostages in return for a vague commitment to negotiate a lasting ceasefire. Hamas rejected that offer, accusing Israel of backtracking on the signed agreement and trying to sabotage the truce.
Palestinian official says no fuel left for water wells
Israel has barred the delivery of food, fuel and other supplies to Gaza’s roughly 2 million Palestinians, and cut electricity to the territory, to pressure Hamas to accept the new proposal.
The city of Rafah, on the Gaza-Egypt border, said it could no longer provide fuel needed to pump water from dozens of wells across the city.
Ahmed Al-Sufi, head of the municipality, said fuel shortages caused by the Israeli siege have forced it to “suspend essential services, threatening the lives of thousands and exacerbating the health and environmental crisis.”
The first phase of the truce saw the release of 25 Israeli hostages and the bodies of eight more in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners. Israeli forces pulled back to a buffer zone along Gaza’s border and allowed a surge of humanitarian aid.
An Israeli official said last month that Israel will not withdraw from the so-called Philadelphi corridor, along the Gaza-Egypt border, as called for in the ceasefire agreement. Israel has cited the need to combat weapons smuggling.


Israeli strike kills one in south Lebanon: ministry

Updated 15 March 2025
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Israeli strike kills one in south Lebanon: ministry

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike targeting a vehicle killed one person in south Lebanon on Saturday, the Lebanese health ministry said, according to state media.
“A strike by the Israeli enemy on a car in the town of Burj Al-Muluk (near the Israeli border) led to the death of one citizen,” the ministry’s emergency unit was quoted as saying by state news agency NNA.
A November 27 truce largely halted more than a year of hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel, including two months of full-blown war in which Israel sent in ground troops.
Israel has continued to carry out periodic strikes on Lebanese territory since the agreement took effect.
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said it carried out an air strike in southern Lebanon that killed a senior Hezbollah militant who was reportedly responsible for a drone and rocket arsenal.
It came as Lebanon received four detainees who had been taken to Israel during fighting with Hezbollah, with a fifth detainee, a soldier, released on Thursday after he was taken earlier this month.
Israel had been due to withdraw from Lebanon by February 18 after missing a January deadline, but it has kept troops at five locations it deems “strategic.”
The ceasefire also required Hezbollah to pull back north of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and to dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.


Israeli airstrike kills nine people in north Gaza town, medics say, amid ceasefire disputes

Updated 15 March 2025
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Israeli airstrike kills nine people in north Gaza town, medics say, amid ceasefire disputes

  • Several were critically injured as the strike hit a car, with casualties inside and outside the vehicle, health officials told Reuters
  • The Israeli military said it had struck two individuals that it identified as “terrorists”

CAIRO: At least nine Palestinians were killed, including two local journalists, and others wounded on Saturday in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s northern Beit Lahiya town, Gaza’s health ministry said, as Hamas’ leaders hold Gaza ceasefire talks with mediators in Cairo.
Several were critically injured as the strike hit a car, with casualties inside and outside the vehicle, health officials told Reuters.
Witnesses and fellow journalists said the people in the car were on a mission for a charity called Al-Khair Foundation in Beit Lahiya, and they were accompanied by journalists and photographers when the strike hit them. At least three local journalists were among the dead, according to Palestinian media.
The Israeli military said in a statement that it had struck two individuals that it identified as “terrorists” operating a drone that it said posed a threat to forces in Beit Lahiya.
The military later struck several other suspects who it said had collected the drone equipment and entered a vehicle.
The military did not say how it had determined that the individuals it had struck were “terrorists” or provide detail on the threat that the done had posed to its soldiers.
The incident underscores the fragility of the January 19 ceasefire agreement that halted large-scale fighting in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian health officials say dozens of people have been killed by Israeli fire despite the truce.
Commenting on the latest deaths, the Islamist Hamas group accused Israel in a statement of attempting to renege on the ceasefire agreement, putting the number of Palestinians killed since January 19 at 150.
It urged mediators to compel Israel to move ahead with the implementation of the phased ceasefire deal, blaming Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the current impasse.
Responding to some of the incidents reported by Gaza medics, the Israeli military says its forces have intervened to thwart threats by “terrorists” approaching its forces or planting bombs on the ground near where forces operate.
Since a temporary first phase of the ceasefire expired on March 2, Israel has rejected opening the second phase of talks, which would require it to negotiate over a permanent end to the war, the main demand of Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The incident coincided with a visit by Hamas’ exiled Gaza chief, Khalil Al-Hayya, to Cairo for further ceasefire talks aimed at resolving disputes with Israel that could risk a resumption of fighting in the enclave.
On Friday, Hamas said it had agreed to free an American-Israeli dual national if Israel begins the next phase of ceasefire talks toward a permanent end to the war, an offer Israel dismissed as “psychological warfare.”
Hamas said it had made the offer to release New Jersey native Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old soldier in the Israeli army, after receiving a proposal from mediators for negotiations on the second phase of a ceasefire deal.
Israel says it wants to extend the ceasefire’s temporary first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase.
The war began when Hamas carried out a cross-border raid into southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and capturing 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health officials, and reduced much of the territory to rubble and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies.