JENIN: Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas vowed to rebuild the Jenin refugee camp during a rare and brief visit Wednesday, a week after a deadly Israeli raid destroyed much of the camp in the occupied West Bank.
Abbas, 87, hailed the Jenin camp as an “icon of struggle” during his first trip to the area in more than a decade, a period during which armed groups have gained popular support at the expense of his Palestinian Authority.
The two-day Israeli raid last week — the largest such operation in years, involving hundreds of troops, drone strikes and armored bulldozers — killed 12 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier.
Israel views the densely-populated urban area, a stronghold of militant groups including Islamic Jihad and Hamas, as a “terrorism hub” and has launched frequent armed raids there since early last year.
Popular discontent with the PA, which cooperates with Israel on security, has been simmering in Jenin, and crowds last week heckled several visiting top officials of Abbas’s Fatah party, including deputy chairman Mahmoud Aloul.
On Wednesday, Abbas expressed determination to back Jenin’s reconstruction and security, describing the camp as an “icon of steadfastness and struggle” in a short address to cheering supporters.
“We have come to say that we are one authority, one state, one law,” Abbas said, warning against anyone who “tampers with the unity and security of our people.”
He vowed to oversee the reconstruction of the camp and the wider city to restore it “to what it was, or even better.”
As he concluded his visit, Abbas laid a wreath on the graves of Palestinians who lost their lives in recent Israeli raids.
A number of Arab countries have announced aid for the camp after last week’s offensive.
Ahead of Abbas’s arrival, hundreds of soldiers from the presidential guard patrolled the streets of the camp, an AFP journalist said, and snipers were positioned on rooftops.
His visit “is a strong and important message... that he stands with the Palestinian people in their resistance to the occupation,” Atta Abu Rumaila, Fatah’s secretary-general in the camp, told AFP.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and its forces regularly launch raids on Palestinian cities.
Abbas traveled by helicopter from Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority, for the visit which lasted barely an hour.
The Palestinian president was flanked by potential successors, including Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh and Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Abbas used his speech to issue a veiled threat at armed groups “undermining” Palestinian security.
“There will be one authority and one security force. Anyone who seeks to undermine its unity and security will face the consequences... Any hand that reaches out to harm the people and their stability shall be cut off,” he said.
Prior to Abbas’s arrival, a group of children were chanting “Katiba, Katiba, Katiba” at the camp in support of local armed group the Jenin Brigades.
Alaa Washahi, 27, speaking after Abbas’s departure, defended the militants in the camp.
“The Jenin Brigades are our pride and honor... their presence is part of our existence,” said the camp resident.
“The truth is we have suffered from the negligence of (Palestinian) officials. This is what the president must see with his own eyes.”
The Jenin camp was established in 1953 to house some of those among the 760,000 Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in 1948 when Israel was created, an event Palestinians call the “Nakba” or “catastrophe.”
Over time, the camp’s original tents have been replaced with concrete buildings, and it now resembles an urban neighborhood.
The camp, which houses about 18,000 people, was also a hotbed of activity during the second “intifada” or uprising of the early 2000s.
Over the past 18 months, the security situation in the camp has deteriorated with repeated Israeli raids, and the Palestinian Authority has little real presence there.
Abbas last visited Jenin in 2012 but did not tour the camp at the time.
While the PA remains somewhat present in the city, it has largely abandoned the camp to groups such as the Jenin Brigades, which Israel alleges is backed by Iran.
Abbas had previously visited the camp itself in 2004 while running for the Palestinian presidential election after the death of leader Yasser Arafat.
Palestinian president Abbas vows to rebuild Jenin camp after deadly Israeli raid
Palestinian president Abbas vows to rebuild Jenin camp after deadly Israeli raid
- Abbas’ visit on Wednesday marked his first trip to the camp since 2005
- The autonomous government administers parts of the West Bank but has largely lost control over several militant strongholds in the region including Jenin
226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO
- Over 187 attacks on healthcare workers have taken place in Lebanon over 13 months, says UN health agency
- Fifteen of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning, warns WHO
GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”
Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, security sources say
- Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.
BEIRUT: A powerful Israeli airstrike targeted central Beirut early on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.
Several powerful blasts shook Beirut at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), Reuters witnesses said. At least four rockets were fired in the attack, two security sources said.
Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district.
Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut, destroying buildings
BEIRUT: A powerful Israeli airstrike targeted central Beirut early on Saturday, security sources said, shaking the Lebanese capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Hezbollah group.
Several powerful blasts shook Beirut at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT), Reuters witnesses said. At least four rockets were fired in the attack, two security sources said.
Sirens could be heard as ambulances raced to the scene of the blast in Beirut’s Basta neighborhood.
Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.
It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a senior Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district.
Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.
The conflict began when Hezbollah opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7: WHO
- Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient”
GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”
Little hope in Gaza that arrest warrants will cool Israeli onslaught
- An Israeli strike hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the area, injuring six medical staff, some critically, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement
GAZA: Gazans saw little hope on Friday that International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli leaders would slow down the onslaught on the Palestinian territory, where medics said at least 21 people were killed in fresh Israeli military strikes.
In Gaza City in the north, an Israeli strike on a house in Shejaia killed eight people, medics said.
Three others were killed in a strike near a bakery, and a fisherman was killed as he set out to sea. In the central and southern areas, nine people were killed in three separate Israeli air strikes.
FASTFACT
Residents in the three besieged towns on Gaza’s northern edge — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of houses.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces deepened their incursion and bombardment of the northern edge of the enclave, their main offensive since early last month.
The military claims it aims to prevent Hamas fighters from waging attacks and regrouping there; residents say they fear the aim is to permanently depopulate a strip of territory as a buffer zone, which Israel denies.
Residents in the three besieged towns on the northern edge — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya, and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up dozens of houses.
An Israeli strike hit the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, one of three medical facilities barely operational in the area, injuring six medical staff, some critically, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement.
“The strike also destroyed the hospital’s main generator and punctured the water tanks, leaving the hospital without oxygen or water, which threatens the lives of patients and staff inside the hospital,” it added.
It said 85 wounded people, including children and women, were inside, eight in the ICU.
Gazans saw the ICC’s decision to seek the arrest of Israeli leaders for suspected war crimes as international recognition of the enclave’s plight. But those queuing for bread at a bakery in the southern city of Khan Younis were doubtful it would have any impact.
“The decision will not be implemented because America protects Israel, and it can veto anything. Israel will not be held accountable,” said Saber Abu Ghali as he waited for his turn in the crowd.
Saeed Abu Youssef, 75, said that even if justice arrived, it would be decades late: “We have been hearing decisions for more than 76 years that have not been implemented and haven’t done anything for us.” Israel launched its assault on Gaza after militants stormed across the border fence, killed 1,200 people, and seized more than 250 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023.
Since then, nearly 44,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, much of which has been laid to waste.
The court’s prosecutors said there were reasonable grounds to believe Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution, and starvation as a weapon of war, as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
Israeli politicians from across the political spectrum have denounced the ICC arrest warrants as biased and based on false evidence, and Israel says the court has no jurisdiction over the war.
Hamas hailed the arrest warrants as a first step toward justice.
Efforts by Arab mediators backed by the US to conclude a ceasefire deal have stalled.
Hamas wants a deal that ends the war, while Netanyahu has vowed the war can end only once Hamas is eradicated.
