Witnesses question Israeli claims after killing of Palestinian

An Israeli policeman shoots Ammar Mefleh. (Screengrab/Twitter)
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Updated 06 December 2022
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Witnesses question Israeli claims after killing of Palestinian

  • Ammar Mefleh, 22, shot dead at point-blank range by officer following scuffle
  • Mefleh grabbed the rifle but then dropped it, at which point the officer drew his pistol and shot him at close range, killing him

LONDON: Witnesses to the killing of a Palestinian have questioned the accounts of Israeli authorities, who say an officer killed the 22-year-old in self-defense, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

Ammar Mefleh was shot dead by an officer at point-blank range in the West Bank on Friday. The killing has sparked widespread condemnation in Palestine, with the UN envoy to the region tweeting that he was “horrified” over Mefleh’s death.

The incident occurred when Mefleh allegedly stabbed the officer in the face following a scuffle.

However, witnesses told the BBC that the man only punched the officer and that there was no knife involved.

It is unclear based on witness testimony and video evidence what led to the incident, but the actions of the officer have been praised in Israel and condemned by Palestinians.

Footage of the incident shows the Israeli officer restraining Mefleh in a headlock, with the latter escaping and trying to seize the policeman’s gun.

Mefleh grabbed the rifle but then dropped it, at which point the officer drew his pistol and shot him at close range, killing him.

Witness Nader Allan told the BBC: “I was standing over there next to the butcher. A settler’s car stopped. I’m not sure if he hit the (Palestinian) guy’s car, or if the guy was walking in the street.

“They started yelling at each other and I heard a shot. The settler shot the guy (Mefleh) in the face. He was bleeding and he fell on the floor.”

Following that initial incident the Israeli officer arrived, eventually leading to Mefleh’s death, Allan said.

Mahmoud Abed, another witness, said he investigated the sound of gunshots after the Israeli driver opened fire.

He added: “We found a guy on the floor with his face covered in blood. A policeman came from far away. He looked at him and kicked him, then the policeman said something on the radio.”

Both witnesses said despite being wounded by the initial shooting, Mefleh confronted the officer who arrived at the scene. This is what led to the scuffle, they added.

Bahaa Odeh, a third witness, said: “Because of how upset I got from what I saw I started shouting at the soldier telling him ‘you’re despicable … there was no danger to your life, why did you kill him?’

“I told him ‘you are a coward … you killed him because he punched you. He has a right to defend himself’.”

As a result of Mefleh’s death, confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli authorities later descended into violence.

In the West Bank this year, more than 150 Palestinians have been killed, almost entirely by Israeli forces.


Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds

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Israel calls for pressure on Turkiye to stop attack on Kurds

JERUSALEM: Turkiye must face pressure from world powers to stop attacks on Kurds in northern Syria, a senior Israeli foreign ministry official said on Tuesday.
"The international community must call on Turkey to stop these aggressions and killing. The Kurds must be protected by the international community," foreign ministry director general Eden Bar Tal told reporters.


Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids

Updated 07 January 2025
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Palestinian health ministry says 2 killed in Israeli West Bank raids

  • Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 820 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war

Ramallah: The Palestinian ministry of health said Israeli forces killed two people on Tuesday in separate raids in the northern West Bank, while the military said it had targeted a “terrorist cell.”
One Palestinian was killed in the town of Tammun, and another in the village of Talouza, the Ramallah-based ministry said.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams had transported the body of an 18-year-old from Tammun who was killed “as a result of shelling,” and that five other people were severely injured during the Israeli raid.
The body was taken to the Turkish Hospital in the nearby city of Tubas, where the director identified the deceased as Suleiman Qutaishat.
The Red Crescent said the other Palestinian was killed in an Israeli raid around the village of Talouza, near Nablus, and was 40 years old.
Residents in the area identified him as Jaafar Dababshe, who they said was shot dead by Israeli forces in front of his house.
The Israeli army when contacted did not offer details, but said on its Telegram channel: “An air force aircraft targeted an armed terrorist cell in the Tammun area” in the early hours of Tuesday.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7, 2023 after Hamas’ attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 820 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 28 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
On Monday, three Israelis were killed when gunmen opened fire on a bus and other vehicles in the West Bank, according to medics.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.


International flights resume at Damascus airport

Updated 07 January 2025
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International flights resume at Damascus airport

  • Syria will receive two electricity-generating ships from Turkiye and Qatar to boost energy supplies hit by damage to infrastructure during President Bashar Assad’s rule

Damascus: International flights resumed at Syria’s main airport in Damascus on Tuesday for the first time since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar Assad last month.
A Syrian Airlines flight bound for Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates, took off at around 11:45 am, marking the first international commercial flight from the airport since December 8.
Syria to receive electricity-generating ships from Qatar and Turkiye
Syria will receive two electricity-generating ships from Turkiye and Qatar to boost energy supplies hit by damage to infrastructure during President Bashar Assad’s rule, state news agency SANA quoted an official as saying on Tuesday.
Khaled Abu Dai, director general of the General Establishment for Electricity Transmission and Distribution, told SANA the ships would provide a total of 800 megawatts of electricity but did not say over what period.
“The extent of damage to the generation and transformation stations and electrical connection lines during the period of the former regime is very large, we are seeking to rehabilitate (them) in order to transmit energy,” Abu Dai said.
He did not say when Syria would receive the two ships.
The United States on Monday issued a sanctions exemption for transactions with governing institutions in Syria for six months after the end of Assad’s rule to try to increase the flow of humanitarian assistance.
The exemption allows some energy transactions and personal remittances to Syria until July 7. The action did not remove any sanctions.
Syria suffers from severe power shortages, with state-supplied electricity available just two or three hours a day in most areas. The caretaker government says it aims within two months to provide electricity up to eight hours a day.


France says fate of citizens held in Iran worsening

Updated 07 January 2025
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France says fate of citizens held in Iran worsening

PARIS: The situation of three French citizens held in Iran is worsening with some being detained in conditions similar to torture, France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday, adding that future ties and sanctions lifting would depend on their fate.
“The situation of our compatriots held hostage in Iran is simply unacceptable; they have been unjustly detained for several years, in undignified conditions that, for some, fall within the definition of torture under international law,” Jean-Noel Barrot told a conference of French ambassadors.
“I say to the Iranian authorities: our hostages must be released. Our bilateral relations and the future of sanctions depend on it.”


US transfers 11 Guantanamo detainees to Yemen after more than two decades without charge

Updated 07 January 2025
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US transfers 11 Guantanamo detainees to Yemen after more than two decades without charge

  • President George W. Bush’s administration turned Guantanamo into a detention site for the mostly Muslim men taken into custody around the world in what the US called its “war on terror.”

WASHINGTON: The Pentagon said Monday it had transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman this week after holding them for more than two decades without charge at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The transfer was the latest and biggest push by the Biden administration in its final weeks to clear Guantanamo of the last remaining detainees there who were never charged with a crime.
The latest release brings the total number of men detained at Guantanamo to 15. That’s the fewest since 2002, when President George W. Bush’s administration turned Guantanamo into a detention site for the mostly Muslim men taken into custody around the world in what the US called its “war on terror.” The US invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and military and covert operations elsewhere followed the Sept. 11, 2001, Al-Qaeda attacks.
The men in the latest transfer included Shaqawi al Hajj, who had undergone repeated hunger strikes and hospitalizations at Guantanamo to protest his 21 years in prison, preceded by two years of detention and torture in CIA custody, according to the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights.
Rights groups and some lawmakers have pushed successive US administrations to close Guantanamo or, failing that, release all those detainees never charged with a crime. Guantanamo held about 800 detainees at its peak.
The Biden administration and administrations before it said they were working on lining up suitable countries willing to take those never-charged detainees. Many of those stuck at Guantanamo were from Yemen, a country split by war, with its capital held by the Iranian-allied Houthi militant group.
The sultanate of Oman, on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula, did not acknowledge taking in the prisoners early Tuesday. Officials in the country did not respond to questions from The Associated Press. The key Western ally has taken in some 30 prisoners in the past since the founding of the prison.
However, those prisoners have since been released in circumstances unexplained by Oman. Two Afghans once held by Oman returned to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in February. One Yemeni died in Oman after being told he and 27 others would be repatriated to Yemen, the British activist group CAGE International said.
“Faced with little choice, 26 of the men and their families returned to Yemen after being pressured by the Omani government, which offered each $70,000 as compensation,” the group said. It wasn’t immediately clear what happened to the 28th prisoner.
The transfer announced Monday leaves six never-charged men still being held at Guantanamo, two convicted and sentenced inmates, and seven others charged with the 2001 attacks, the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, and 2002 bombings in Bali, Indonesia.