RAMALLAH: Israel’s right-wing government on Friday was accused of stepping up its unprecedented campaign against Palestinian prisoners and their families in occupied Jerusalem.
Qadura Faris, chief of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, described the persecution as a “renewed catastrophe,” highlighting the Israeli confiscation of tens of thousands of dollars under the pretext of prisoners receiving undue funding from the Palestinian Authority.
Faris warned that the occupation had found “innovative ways” to expand its repression of Palestinians.
His remarks came as Palestinian sources confirmed that Israeli security authorities seized money from several Jerusalem convicts and their families on Thursday over fears that funding prisoners could incentivize violence ahead of Ramadan.
The sources said that Israeli authorities seized $33,370 from the bank account of liberated prisoner Iman Al-Aawar and her son, Mohammed.
Authorities also claimed $31,700 from the account of a mother of a freed prisoner, in addition to closing their bank accounts. The family was informed of the closure via a WhatsApp message.
The Israeli security forces also raided dozens of homes of prisoners and released prisoners in East Jerusalem, seizing money and valuables, and confiscating family bank accounts.
Sources said that the Israeli security forces stormed the homes of three Jerusalem prisoners, seized money, private property and jewelery, and vandalized the properties.
The targeting of prisoners and their families came after the Feb. 10 decision by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant, supported by both right-wing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, to seize money from 87 prisoners and released prisoners in East Jerusalem.
Israel devised the policy of seizing funds from Jerusalem prisoners and ex-prisoners several years ago. The strategy is being vigorously implemented after the arrival of Yoav Galant, Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to the Israeli government in late December.
In January, the Israeli Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs ordered the deduction of about $39 million of Palestinian Authority funds in order to allocate the money to Israeli victims of terrorism.
The Israeli Ministerial Committee also ordered the offsetting of welfare payments made by the Palestinian governments to prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed by Israeli forces in 2022.
Galant, meanwhile, signed an order on Jan. 26 to seize $148,000 and a vehicle belonging to the families of released prisoners Karim and Maher Younis from the town of Ar’ara in the Northern Triangle, within Israel.
They had spent 40 years in Israeli prisons.
Israeli sources claimed that the money and the vehicle were obtained from stipends allotted to the prisoners by the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian prisoners and their families are persecuted, harassed and routinely intimidated by Israeli authorities, who resent that the PA pays stipends to support families of the imprisoned, sources said.
The grant is similar to a social security payment, but Israel views it as an incitement for Palestinians to conduct attacks against Israel.
Ahmed Guneim, Fatah’s prominent leader in East Jerusalem, told Arab News that targeting prisoners’ money and property is a “catastrophic failure” of the Israeli government, which promised its people security.
Guneim added that extremist ministers were now resorting to “retaliatory measures” by “sending armed gangs to rob the homes of Jerusalemites, stealing their money, jewelry and property, and closing their bank accounts.”
He said: “This is an armed robbery. What is their evidence that the confiscated money, vehicles and jewelery belong to the prisoner personally?”
Guneim added that the repressive Israeli measures were a factor in rising tensions in East Jerusalem.
Israeli political analyst Yoni Ben Menachem told Arab News that Galant would target 300 Palestinian prisoners from East Jerusalem, up from the previous 87.
“The decision of the Israeli defense minister aims to combat Palestinian violence, because there is a belief among the Israeli security services that this money can be used to incite the Palestinians in East Jerusalem to launch an uprising to coincide with the beginning of Ramadan,” Ben Menachem told Arab News.
‘Armed robbery’: Israeli seizure of Palestinian prisoner funds condemned
https://arab.news/mw7eh
‘Armed robbery’: Israeli seizure of Palestinian prisoner funds condemned
- Occupation had found ‘innovative ways’ to expand its repression of Palestinians
- Israel devised policy of seizing funds from Jerusalem prisoners and ex-prisoners years ago
Israeli strike at Beirut southern entrance kills one: ministry
- Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the ceasefire in November, usually claiming to be going after Hezbollah targets
BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a vehicle at the southern entrance of Beirut killed one man and wounded three other people on Thursday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry, as the Israeli army said it hit a “terrorist” working for Iran.
The attack is the latest despite a November ceasefire that sought to end over a year of hostilities between Israel and Iran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
The Lebanese health ministry said in a statement that “the Israeli enemy’s attack on a car in Khalde resulted in a preliminary toll of one martyr and three people wounded.”
According to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency, “an enemy drone targeted a car on the Khalde highway” south of Beirut.
The Israeli army said it “eliminated a terrorist responsible for smuggling weapons and advancing terror attacks against Israeli civilians and (Israeli) troops, on behalf of the Iranian Quds Force,” the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
An AFP photographer saw a half-burnt car on the crowded highway as the Lebanese army sealed the area off.
Israel has repeatedly bombed Lebanon since the ceasefire in November, usually claiming to be going after Hezbollah targets.
Israel warned in June that it would keep striking Lebanon until the group has been disarmed.
Last week, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said in a televised speech that the “ongoing aggression” by Israel “must not be allowed to continue.”
Under the ceasefire deal, Hezbollah was to pull its fighters back north of the Litani river, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the Israeli border, leaving the Lebanese army and United Nations peacekeepers as the only armed parties in the region.
Israel was required to fully withdraw its troops from the country, but has kept them in five locations in south Lebanon that it deems strategic.
Algeria jails historian who questioned Amazigh culture
- He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity“
- Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court sentenced him to five years
ALGIERS: An Algerian court on Thursday sentenced historian Mohamed Amine Belghit to five years in prison for offending national symbols, his lawyer said, after remarks questioning the existence of the native Amazigh culture.
Belghit sparked outrage in the North African country when he said in a recent interview that “the Amazigh language is an ideological project of Franco-Zionist origin,” and that “there’s no such thing as Amazigh culture.”
He was arrested on May 3 for “the crime of undermining national unity” by targeting “symbols of the nation and the republic” as well as “disseminating hate speech,” the prosecution said at the time.
On Thursday, Belghit’s lawyer Toufik Hichour said on Facebook that a court outside the capital Algiers sentenced him to five years behind bars.
The prosecutor had requested seven years jailtime and a fine of 700,000 dinars ($5,400).
Algeria in 2016 granted official status to Tamazight, the language of the Amazigh people, who are also known as Berbers.
The Berber new year celebration, Yennayer, was added in 2017 to the list of national holidays.
Belghit, a university professor, is no stranger to controversies.
His remarks often cause uproar, with critics accusing him of historical revisionism and hostility toward the Amazigh people.
Iran committed to Non-Proliferation Treaty, foreign minister says
- Abbas Araqchi made the comment a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog
- Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’s airstrikes
Iran remains committed to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and its safeguards agreement, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday, a day after Tehran enacted a law suspending cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.
“Our cooperation with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) will be channeled through Iran’s Supreme National Security Council for obvious safety and security reasons,” Araqchi wrote in a post on X.
President Masoud Pezeshkian on Wednesday enacted the legislation passed by parliament last week to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, a move the US called “unacceptable.”
Araqchi’s comment on X was in response to a call from Germany’s Foreign Ministry urging Tehran to reverse its decision to shelve cooperation with the IAEA.
Araqchi accused Germany of “explicit support for Israel’s unlawful attack on Iran, including safeguarded nuclear sites.”
Iran has accused the IAEA of siding with Western countries and providing a justification for Israel’sJune 13-24 airstrikes on Iranian nuclear installations, which began a day after the UN agency’s board of governors voted to declare Tehran in violation of its obligations under the NPT.
Western powers have long suspected that Iran has sought to develop the means to build atomic bombs through its declared civilian atomic energy program. Iran has repeatedly said it is enriching uranium only for peaceful nuclear ends.
IAEA inspectors are mandated to ensure compliance with the NPT by seeking to verify that nuclear programs in treaty countries are not diverted for military purposes.
The law that went into effect on Wednesday mandates that any future inspection of Iranian nuclear sites by the IAEA needs approval by Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council.
“We are aware of these reports. The IAEA is awaiting further official information from Iran,” the Vienna-based global nuclear watchdog said in a statement.
US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a regular briefing on Wednesday that Iran needed to cooperate fully with the IAEA without further delay.
Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq to hand over weapons in first step toward disarmament
- “A group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” PKK said
- A PKK spokesperson said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions”
IRBIL, Iraq: A Kurdish militant group that has waged a long-running insurgency in Türkiye announced Thursday its fighters in northern Iraq will begin handing over their weapons, marking the first concrete step toward disarmament as part of a peace process.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, announced in May it would disband and renounce armed conflict, ending four decades of hostilities. The move came after PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, who has been imprisoned on an island near Istanbul since 1999, urged his group in February to convene a congress and formally disband and disarm.
Ocalan, 76, continues to wield significant influence in the Kurdish movement despite his 25-year imprisonment. His call to end the fighting marked a pivotal step toward ending the decades-long conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the 1980s.
In the latest development, “a group of guerrilla fighters will come down from the mountains and will bid farewell to their arms in an effort to declare their good will for peace and democratic politics,” the PKK said in a statement Thursday.
The ceremony, which is expected to take place between July 10 and July 12 in the city of Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region, will be the first concrete move toward disarmament.
Zagros Hiwa, a PKK spokesperson, said the fighters will destroy their weapons “under the supervision of civil society institutions and interested parties.” The number of fighters who will take part has not yet been determined but might be between 20 and 30, he said.
For the PKK to take further steps toward disarmament, he said “the regime of isolation” imposed on Öcalan in prison “has to be abolished” and “constitutional, legal and political” must be taken to “ensure that the guerrilla who have abandoned the strategy of armed struggle could be reintegrated into democratic politics in Turkiye.”
An Iraqi Kurdish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the PKK members are expected to hand over their light weapons to the regional government.
The regional government is dominated by two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, with the KDP overseeing the regional capital, Irbil, and the city of Dohuk. The PUK governs Sulaymaniyah.
The KDP has good relations with Türkiye and has been at odds with the PKK, while the PUK is closer to the PKK.
In Türkiye on Monday, Omer Celik, a spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or AKP, said the PKK could begin handing over arms “within days,” but did not provide details. Celik added that Erdogan would meet with members of the pro-Kurdish party next week to discuss the peace effort.
There was no immediate statement from Türkiye’s government on Thursday’s announcement.
The PKK has long maintained bases in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish forces have launched offensives and airstrikes against the PKK in Iraq and have set up bases in the area. Scores of villages have emptied as a result.
The Iraqi government in Baghdad last year announced an official ban on the separatist group, which has long been prohibited in Türkiye.
Killings rise when Gaza Health Foundation distributes aid: Analysis
- Sky News finds correlation between aid drops, increased fatalities
- UN labels GHF sites ‘death traps,’ amid claims Israeli soldiers deliberately fire at civilians
LONDON: An investigation has found an increase in deaths in Gaza correlated with aid distribution overseen by the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Health Foundation.
The GHF took over humanitarian supply systems in the Palestinian enclave in May, replacing around 400 distribution sites run by other charities and NGOs with four designated facilities, called Secure Distribution Sites.
They were meant to ensure that aid did not fall into the hands of Hamas or other armed groups, which Israel alleges frequently happened under the previous UN-backed system.
However, Gaza’s health authorities say more than 600 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at the sites, which the UN has labeled “death traps.” Israeli soldiers have been accused of opening fire directly at civilians.
Analysis conducted by Sky News suggests that killings rise when aid is distributed by the GHF.
Sky’s Data & Forensics Unit found that an average of 48 deaths and 189 injuries are reported when the GHF operates two or fewer aid distributions. That number rises almost threefold when it runs five to six aid drops.
Sky reported that between June 5 and July 1, 77 aid distributions were conducted by the GHF. Of those, 23 — or 30 percent of the total — resulted in reports of violence, and at SDS4 half of all drops saw bloodshed.
A recent report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz interviewed Israeli soldiers who said they were ordered to fire at crowds of unarmed Palestinians at the GHF sites.
The Israeli military denies the allegations, but said it is investigating incidents where civilians have been harmed.
The UN, in its most recent update on June 24, put the number of casualties at GHF sites at 410, citing data available from nearby hospitals.
The GHF has been severely criticized for the manner in which aid is distributed, with footage obtained by Sky on June 15 showing Palestinians at SDS1 crowding and rummaging among hundreds of scattered aid packages discarded on the floor.
Sky’s analysis found that aid is often delivered in significantly smaller quantities than required, with supplies running out on average after just nine minutes. At 23 percent of aid drops, supplies were exhausted before the official opening time.
Sky reported that 86 percent of distributions were announced to people in the area less than 30 minutes in advance, and that maps and instructions distributed to locals to navigate and access the sites were inaccurate or dangerous, including telling civilians trying to reach SDS2, 3 and 4 to congregate inside areas labeled live combat zones by Israel.
In addition, the congregation areas are typically some distance from the sites, causing surges when they open as people attempt to cover the open ground to access the aid.
The shortest distance from a waiting point to an SDS is 689 meters, at SDS4, approximately 10 minutes away on foot — more than the average time before supplies run out.
Sam Rose, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, called the GHF’s system a “free-for-all.”
He told Sky: “What they’re doing is, they’re loading up the boxes on the ground and then people just rush in.”
Rose added: “They (the GHF) don’t know what they’re doing. They don’t have anyone working on these operations who has any experience of operating, of administering food distributions because anyone who did have that experience wouldn’t want to be part of it because this isn’t how you treat people.”
A group of charities and humanitarian groups on Tuesday condemned the GHF’s operations, saying they violate international principles.
More than 200 groups have called for the reinstatement of the previous aid distribution system overseen by the UN.
