Uproar over Israeli FM’s ‘provocative’ visit to Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem

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Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid visits Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem. (@yairlapid)
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Updated 04 April 2022
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Uproar over Israeli FM’s ‘provocative’ visit to Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem

  • Both sides resisting a new cycle of extreme violence despite rippling tensions across the West Bank and East Jerusalem

RAMALLAH: Palestinians have strongly condemned the Israeli Foreign Affairs Minister Yair Lapid’s provocative visit to Damascus Gate in East Jerusalem.

Violent clashes erupted after Lapid visited the area on Sunday evening, leading to the injury of 19 youths and the arrest of 11 Palestinians by Israeli police.

Violent clashes occurred at the same place during last year’s Ramadan season, which coincided with evictions in Sheikh Jarrah, with the combined tensions leading to 11 days of conflict between Hamas and Israel.

Following his visit to East Jerusalem, Lapid tweeted in Hebrew: “I participated today in assessing the situation in Jerusalem with the Commissioner, Yaakov Shabtai, and then I patrolled the Nablus Gate. This is a tense period, but we have a police force that can be trusted.”

Lapid added: “We give the security forces full backing; they work professionally. Impossible; we are committed to them and will give them all the necessary resources.

“When we are all with our families on Seder night, about 8,000 police officers will be outside guarding the lives of Israeli citizens; I am proud of our police officers, of the Border Police, of the IDF, of everyone who guards us in these tense days — take care of yourselves.”

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned Lapid’s storming of Bab Damascus Gate, describing his words as an embodiment of the apartheid regime.

The ministry also derided promises made by Lapid to domestic extremists to deploy more forces and police in Jerusalem under the pretext of protecting them during the Jewish holidays.

It said that Lapid’s promises are an incitement against the Palestinians and described Lapid’s actions as an “embodiment of the worst forms of the Israeli apartheid regime that the occupation imposes on the Palestinian citizen by force within the framework of its expansionist colonial system.”

This system restricts and confiscates the freedom of the Palestinian person, as if there are only Jewish holidays that need protection, in complete disregard for the existence of Muslim and Christian holidays, the ministy added.

It said that the Israeli apartheid regime is embodied by Lapid’s actions in Jerusalem, adding that he completely ignores the fact that it is occupied land, and storms it as an occupier to make sure that his security measures have been completed to suppress the Palestinian citizens.

The dozens of police and security forces that Lapid is trying to protect are only conclusive proof that he is an occupier and is afraid to walk on occupied land, the ministry said.

Lapid’s visit also inspired a reaction from Israeli far-right politician MK Itamar Ben-Gvir, who tweeted: “Do you remember Lapid, who shouted that I was igniting the Middle East? I set up a bureau in Shimon the Tzaddik (Sheikh Jarrah); there is peace there; I went up to the Temple Mount (Al-Aqsa Mosque) and passed in peace. 

“He ‘toured’ the Damascus Gate riots all night. The matter is simple: He who shows the determination and courage of the rioters respects him. Those who show weakness — get into it.”

Ben-Gvir added: “I spoke at the (parliament) Foreign Affairs and Security Committee and said that whoever attacked the police at Damascus Gate should have been shot.”

Meanwhile, with the start of Ramadan, Israeli police turned East Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque into military barracks.

They tightened its procedures and restrictions on Palestinian worshipers, coinciding with the approaching Jewish holidays.

Israeli political analyst Yoni Ben-Menahem told Arab News: “I do not think that the clashes between Palestinian youths in Bab Al-Amud Square and the Israeli police are linked to Lapid’s visit to the area, which turned a year ago into an arena of daily clashes between the youth of Jerusalem and the police, where the youths provoke their personnel.”

Ben-Menahem continued: “It was assumed that the Minister of Internal Security and Police Omer Bar-Lev would take that tour yesterday, not Lapid, who went there looking for headlines in the Israeli press.”

Prof. Sari Nusseibeh, former president of Al-Quds University, told Arab News that things will not get out of control, despite the bubbling tensions.

He stressed that the presence of the occupation creates causes for anxiety. Still, it will not be an extraordinary and usual tension this time.

Prof. Nusseibeh added that increased security will help to secure the prosperity of the economic situation for the merchants of the old city, who have been waiting for Ramadan to improve their trade.

“There is a consensus among the Old City of Jerusalem merchants on the necessity of maintaining calm and discipline during Ramadan.”

Hamas spokesperson in Jerusalem Mohammed Hamada said in a statement that:

“The raid by the Israeli occupation Foreign Minister Yair Lapid into the Bab Al-Amud (Damascus Gate) area, which was followed by Israeli occupation forces opening fire toward the Palestinian people in occupied Jerusalem, is strongly evident that the Israeli occupation is insisting on implementing its malicious schemes targeting Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

Hamada said the visit was “a grave escalation and a provocation to the feelings of Palestinians and Muslims in the holy month of Ramadan."

He added: “We hold the Israeli occupation leaders fully responsible for the repercussions of this move. We, alongside the Palestinian people, are committed to protecting Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque with all means possible.”

The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of the Islamic Awqaf and Religious Affairs Hatem Al-Bakri said that Israel desecrated Al-Aqsa Mosque through 20 invasions throughout March. He said that Israeli authorities allowed the entry of more than 4,200 Jews, including officers, soldiers and students of biblical institutes, who intended to perform Talmudic prayers in the mosque while a Jewish cleric performed.

The staff of the temple servants, in their priestly attire, performed Talmudic rituals in front of the Dome of the Rock, while some of them chanted the “Israeli national anthem” in the mosque, as part of their attempts to confirm that the mosque is under Israeli sovereignty.

Ben-Gvir was among the participants in the raids on March 31, which the Palestinians described as a provocation.

Despite the waves of small acts of violence and tension rippling across the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both sides are resisting a new cycle of mass violence.


Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

Updated 15 sec ago
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Palestinian boy who lost nine siblings arrives in Italy for treatment

  • According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza

MILAN: A group of 17 Palestinian children, including an 11-year-old boy who lost nine siblings in an Israel strike in Gaza last month, arrived in Italy on Wednesday for hospital treatment, accompanied by more than 50 family members.
Adam Al-Najjar, who has multiple fractures, arrived with his mother at Milan’s Linate airport where he was welcomed by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, before being transferred to the city’s Niguarda Hospital.
The plane that landed at Linate carried five other injured Palestinian minors, while 11 more arrived on flights to other Italian airports.
The May 23 attack left Adam in a serious condition at Nasser Hospital, one of the few operational medical facilities in southern Gaza.
Adam “is stable, has a head wound that is healing but his left arm is bad, the bones are fractured and the nerves damaged,” his 36-year-old mother, Alaa Al-Najjar, a paediatrician, told Italian newspaper la Repubblica.
Adam’s father, Hamdi Al-Najjar, who was also a doctor, died a week after the attack.
“The damage is in my left hand, there is a problem with the nerves, I can’t feel my fingers. There’s still a lot of pain,” Adam told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
A total of 70 Palestinians were set to arrive in Italy on three military aircraft that set off from Israel’s Eilat airport, the Italian foreign ministry said earlier on Wednesday.
The patients will be treated at hospitals in numerous cities including Milan, Rome, Florence and Bologna.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) website, more than 15,000 children have reportedly been killed and over 34,000 injured in almost two years of war in Gaza.
Including the latest operation, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government has so far brought 150 injured Palestinians from Gaza to Italy for treatment, the foreign ministry said.
The Italian government has been a staunch supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas-led militants that killed some 1,200 people and took about 250 hostages to Gaza, according to Israeli figures.
In recent months, Rome has criticized the extent of the Israeli response, and expressed concern as the death toll in Gaza has mounted, while declining to apply sanctions.
Italy was not among numerous European Union countries that called last month for a review of EU-Israeli economic and trade relations.

 


Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

Updated 21 min 21 sec ago
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Israel to expel French nationals on Gaza aid boat by end of week

  • All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years
  • France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict

JERUSALEM: Israel is to expel by the end of the week four French nationals held after security forces intercepted their Gaza-bound aid boat, France’s foreign minister said Wednesday, as an Israeli NGO said one of the French campaigners was briefly put in solitary confinement.
The announcement came as France’s prime minister accused activists aboard the boat — who hoped to raise awareness about the humanitarian situation in war-torn Gaza — of capitalizing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for political attention.
The four, who include Rima Hassan, a member of European Parliament from the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party who is of Palestinian descent, will be deported on Thursday and Friday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X.
They were among 12 people on board the Madleen sailboat which was carrying food and supplies for Gaza before it was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters off the besieged Palestinian territory on Monday.
Four, including two French citizens and Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg, agreed to be deported immediately.
The remaining eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily, according to Adalah, an Israeli rights NGO representing most of the activists.
All 12 of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years.
Adalah said on Wednesday that Israeli authorities had placed French MEP Hassan and Brazilian activist Thiago Avila in solitary confinement, with Hassan later removed.

“Israeli authorities transferred two of the volunteers — the Brazilian volunteer Thiago Avila and the French-Palestinian European Parliament member Rima Hassan — to separate prison facilities, away from the others, and placed them in solitary confinement,” Adalah said in a statement.
The NGO later said that Hassan had been moved back to Givon prison in Ramla, near Tel Aviv, while Avila remained in isolation.
When asked for comment, Israel’s prison authority referred AFP to the foreign ministry, which said it was checking the reports.
Adalah said Hassan was put in isolation after writing “Free Palestine” on a prison wall.
The NGO said Brazilian activist Avila was placed in isolation “due to his ongoing hunger and thirst strike, which he began two days ago.”
“He has also been treated aggressively by prison authorities, although this has not escalated to physical assault,” it added.
The leader of Hassan’s LFI party in parliament, Mathilde Panot, said France’s prime minister Francois Bayrou had failed to condemn Israel’s actions.
The party’s boss, Jean-Luc Melenchon, accused Bayrou of “abandoning the French prisoners,” and called on President Emmanuel Macron to step in.
“These activists obtained the effect they wanted, but it’s a form of instrumentalization to which we should not lend ourselves,” Bayrou responded in the National Assembly.
It’s “through diplomatic action, and efforts to bring together several states to pressure the Israeli government, that we can obtain the only possible solution” to the conflict, he added.
Foreign Minister Barrot also rejected Panot’s criticism, saying “the admirable mobilization” of French officials had made a rapid resolution of the situation possible “despite the harassment and defamation that they have been subjected to.”

France and Saudi Arabia are co-hosting a UN meeting later this month in New York on steps toward recognizing a Palestinian state and reaching a so-called two-state solution to the conflict.
Israel is facing mounting pressure to allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza, whose entire population the United Nations has warned is at risk of famine.
Israel’s defense minister Israel Katz on Wednesday called on Egypt to block a hundreds-strong pro-Palestinian activist convoy from reaching Gaza, as the group arrived in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
Palestinian militant group Hamas on October 7, 2023 attacked Israel, resulting in the deaths of 1,219 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says the retaliatory Israeli military offensive has killed at least 55,104 people, the majority civilians. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable.
Out of 251 taken hostage during the Hamas attack, 54 are still held in Gaza including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.

 


Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

Updated 11 June 2025
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Israel says bodies of two hostages retrieved from Gaza

  • Yair Yaakov was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two hostages from the Gaza Strip, the military said Wednesday, as Israel presses its offensive in the Palestinian territory.
A military statement said a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet security agency recovered the bodies of Yair Yaakov and “an additional hostage whose name has not yet been cleared for publication” from the Khan Yunis area of southern Gaza.
Yaakov, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was 59 when he was seized in the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and killed the same day.
The military statement said he had been abducted and killed by fighters from Islamic Jihad, a Hamas ally.
Yaakov was abducted along with his partner Meirav Tal, as they sheltered in their safe room in Nir Oz.
She was freed on November 28, 2023 during the first truce.
Abducted separately at the home of their mother, Yair’s two children Yagil and Or were also released on November 27 during the first truce.
Nir Oz was one of the communities hit hardest by the attack, with nearly a quarter of its residents killed or taken hostage.


Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

Argentine President Javier Milei attends a Plenum session of the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, in Jerusalem. (Reuters)
Updated 11 June 2025
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Milei says Argentina to move Israel embassy to Jerusalem in 2026

  • “I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei told Israeli parliament Wednesday

JERUSALEM: Argentine President Javier Milei said Wednesday his country would move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the status of which is one of the most delicate issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
“I am proud to announce before you that in 2026 we will make effective the move of our embassy to the city of west Jerusalem,” Milei said in a speech in the Israeli parliament during an official state visit.
Argentina’s embassy is currently located near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.
Several countries, including the United States, Paraguay, Guatemala and Kosovo, have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, breaking with international consensus.
Israel has occupied east Jerusalem since 1967, later annexing it in a move not recognized by the international community.
Israel treats the city as its capital, while Palestinians want east Jerusalem to become the capital of a future state.
Most foreign embassies to Israel are located in the coastal hub city of Tel Aviv in order to avoid interfering with negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
In 2017, during his first term as US president, Donald Trump unilaterally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, sparking Palestinian anger and the international community’s disapproval.
The United States transferred its embassy to Jerusalem in May 2018.


Syrian, Egyptian foreign ministers hold talks at Oslo Forum

Updated 11 June 2025
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Syrian, Egyptian foreign ministers hold talks at Oslo Forum

  • Lawmakers exchange views on challenges to regional security

LONDON: The foreign ministers of the Syrian Arab Republic and Egypt held talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Oslo Forum 2025 in Norway.

Asaad al-Shaibani and Badr Abdelatty discussed ways to improve collaboration between their countries and exchanged views on the challenges to security and stability in the region, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan also met Abdelatty on the sidelines of the forum to discuss bilateral relations and the escalating situation in the Gaza Strip and occupied West Bank.

The Oslo Forum is an annual event organized by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in collaboration with the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Switzerland. It provides a platform for global leaders, decision-makers and conflict mediators to share their experiences and discuss pathways to peace.