RAMALLAH: The far-right Israeli government was on Thursday accused of taking advantage of the Jewish holidays to turn the Palestinian crisis into a religious conflict.
Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh made the remarks to Arab News as Israeli authorities closed the Kerem Shalom and Erez crossings with the Gaza Strip from Thursday until Sunday, citing the Jewish holidays.
Jewish settlers performed collective rituals in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday. Fattouh criticized the action as an attempt to transform the area into a place of worship for Jews as well.
Palestinians from Jerusalem said that Israeli authorities had been preventing the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa Mosque since Wednesday evening and throughout Thursday, which they say happens on all Jewish holidays and occasions.
Dozens of settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound on Thursday under protection from the Israeli police, performing Talmudic rituals at the gates of the mosque.
The Israeli armed forces also launched a massive campaign of arrests and raids on citizens’ homes in the cities of the West Bank, rounding up 17 Palestinians.
Eight citizens were injured during the Israeli army’s raid at dawn on Thursday on the Aqbat Jaber camp in Jericho.
The armed forces also notified the owners of 17 agricultural facilities, mobile homes, roads, and electricity grid lines in the town to stop construction in Aqraba, south of Nablus.
Citing settler violence as the main reason, 178 people, including 78 children, began dismantling and leaving their homes in the Palestinian herding community of Ein Samiya in eastern Ramallah on Thursday.
“These families are not leaving by choice,” said Yvonne Helle, UN acting humanitarian coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
“The Israeli authorities have repeatedly demolished homes and other structures they own and have threatened to destroy their only school,” said Helle.
“At the same time, land available for livestock grazing has decreased due to settlement expansion.
“Both children and adults have been subjected to settler violence.”
The coordinator added: “We are witnessing the tragic consequences of longstanding Israeli practices and settler violence.”
Repeated demolitions, settlement expansion, loss of access to grazing land, and settler violence continue to cause concern about the coercive environment Palestinians are subject to, which is leading to increased humanitarian troubles.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh described the Israeli authorities’ displacement of the residents of Ein Samiya and the displacement plans that affect about 250 communities along the eastern slopes of the West Bank as a form of ethnic cleansing.
The actions fall within a systematic policy of expansion, through which the Israeli occupation authorities aim to seize Palestinian land to expand their settlements.
Shtayyeh pointed out that residents of the Palestinian villages that are targeted now live in fear of occupation soldiers and settlers.
Settlers from the Karmi Zur settlement near Hebron destroyed five planted dunums (1.2 acres) south of Beit Ummar by spraying them with toxic pesticides, which destroyed the entire crop.
They also attacked Palestinian homes in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, and burned sheep pens and olive groves.
They fired live ammunition under the protection of the Israeli army while bulldozers leveled lands belonging to Palestinians.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative Party, told Arab News that what is currently taking place is part of an Israeli war to break Palestinian resistance and advance the occupation’s plan to annex and Judaize the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Barghouti added that “what happened in Ein Samiya...reminds us of the Israeli massacres committed against the Palestinians in 1948.”
He said that the Palestinian leadership must respond to these challenges without hesitation, unite Palestinians and take effective measures to stop the perpetuation of violence.
Israeli settlers’ aggression fuels tension in occupied territories
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Israeli settlers’ aggression fuels tension in occupied territories
- Palestinians from Jerusalem said that Israeli authorities had been preventing the entry of worshipers to Al-Aqsa Mosque since Wednesday evening and throughout Thursday
- The Israeli armed forces also launched a massive campaign of arrests and raids on citizens’ homes in the cities of the West Bank, rounding up 17 Palestinians
Fighting in Sudan’s North Darfur kills at least 13 children, UNICEF says
The children were between 6 and 17 years old, the UN agency said in a statement on Sunday.
The Sudanese army on Friday launched airstrikes that targeted a market in the town of Al Kuma, around 70 kilometers (43 miles) east of the North Darfur capital of El Fasher, the local Daily Sudan Post reported.
The airstrikes, which also hit the city of Mellit, killed at least 45 people and injured dozens of others, according to the Sudan Tribune news portal and the Central Observatory for Human Rights.
Hamrat Al-Sheikh in North Kordofan was also struck, according to Mohammed H. Al-Ta’ishi, a former member of the Sovereignty Council of Sudan, who said Saturday that the strikes targeted areas that “haven’t seen any form of confrontation since the war began.”
War between the Sudanese military and the Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023 in the capital, Khartoum, and has spread across the country. Darfur has seen particularly intense fighting.
“These attacks on children are unacceptable. Children have no role to play in wars or civil conflict, but children are the ones who are suffering the most as the conflict in Sudan grinds on,” said Sheldon Yett, a UNICEF representative to Sudan.
“Children should be safe everywhere, in their homes, neighborhoods, and on the streets,” Yett added.
The UN estimated that 20,000 people have been killed and thousands injured since the conflict began. The war has also displaced over 10 million people, including 2.4 million who fled to neighboring countries and other nations.
Jordan foreign minister arrives in Beirut in show of solidarity
- Jordan FM Ayman Safadi stressed his country’s support against the escalating Israeli aggression
BEIRUT: Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi arrived in Beirut on board a Jordanian aid plane, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The aircraft was the seventh aid plane dispatched to Lebanon since the onset of the war, carrying 13 tonnes of food, relief items and medical supplies, according to the Jordanian foreign minister.
As part of his “solidarity visit,” Safadi met with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and stressed Jordan’s support against the escalating Israeli aggression.
He reiterated his country’s commitment to achieving ceasefire and providing Jordan with the necessary aid to overcome the repercussions of the intense Israeli bombing.
Safadi is scheduled to meet Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih Berry and Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces Joseph Aoun during his visit.
Hezbollah vows to keep fighting Israeli ‘aggression’
- The Israeli army deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Monday vowed to keep up the fight against Israeli “aggression,” on the anniversary of its militant group ally Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered war in the Gaza Strip.
Hezbollah and the Lebanese have paid a “heavy price” for the Iran-backed group’s decision to open a “support front” for Gaza on October 8, but “we are confident... in the ability of our resistance to oppose the Israeli aggression,” it said in a statement, calling Israel a “cancerous gland that must be eliminated, no matter how long it takes.”
Hezbollah said it targeted Israeli troops in a south Lebanon border village on Monday, as the Israeli army said it had deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon.
Hezbollah fighters “bombed... a gathering of Israeli forces in the Maroun Al-Ras park with a rocket salvo,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, after announcing separately it had targeted several areas of northern Israel and military positions across the border.
The Israeli army on Monday said it had deployed another division to participate in operations in Lebanon — making it the third troop grouping at division strength to be used in the ground fight against Hezbollah.
“The soldiers of the 91st Division began localized and targeted operational activity in southern Lebanon,” said a statement from the army.
“Victory in Gaza may be delayed, but it is coming” says Hamas former leader Khaled Mashaal
DUBAI: Hamas’ former leader Khaled Mashaal said what is happening in Gaza is a “holocaust” in a speech he delivered on Monday morning.
Mashaal said the Oct. 7. attacks happened because all political horizons were closed and has achieved "strategic results" since.
He thanked Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran for supporting Hamas and called on Arab countries to provide financial support to Gaza.
Mashaal said Israel opened the war front in Lebanon after failing to achieve its goals in Gaza and claimed that Israel is conspiring against Jordan and Egypt.
A year after Oct. 7, Israel has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has traded fire with Israel since the war in Gaza began.
“Israel is defeated although it has achieved accomplishments against Iran and Hezbollah,” added Mashaal.
Mashaal concluded by asking the people of Gaza not to despair and promised them victory soon.
Over the past year in Gaza, more than 40,000 people, including over 10,000 children, have been killed by Israel’s forces, exacting indiscriminate and disproportionate vengeance for the 1,200 Israelis killed by Hamas on Oct. 7.
Advisor to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Al-Habash said Mashaal's statements are "empty slogans that achieve nothing".
Al-Habash said "real victory is protecting our people" and added that Hamas should have moved towards unity with the Palestinian authority.
Globally, people have hit the streets to protest against Israel’s deadly military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon.
Demonstrators expressed outrage against the Israeli aggression, demanding an end to the war in Gaza, describing the situation as “genocide,” and calling upon the global community to act.
Protests have taken place from the Middle East to Europe, the US, India, Pakistan and Far East Asia.
Israeli hostage forum announces death of captive held in Gaza
- Idan Shtivi, 28, was abducted from the site of the Nova music festival
TEL AVIV: An Israeli campaign group on Monday announced the death of a hostage held in Gaza, as the country marked the first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said Idan Shtivi, 28, was abducted from the site of the Nova music festival and his “body is still held captive by Hamas.”
The forum said Shtivi had just arrived at the festival site when the attack began.
“On October 7, Idan arrived at the Nova Festival in the early morning to document his friends’ performances and workshops,” the forum said in a statement.
“However, he never made it inside. When the attack began, Idan helped two strangers he had just met escape from the site. This selfless choice ultimately led to his abduction.”
