RAMALLAH: The Palestinian health ministry said Tuesday that Israeli troops had shot and killed a 13-year-old boy near the occupied West Bank’s main city of Ramallah.
The Israeli army also bulldozed the main street in the Nur Shams refugee camp in a separate operation, Palestinian officials said, highlighting a spike in tensions since the Gaza war erupted on October 7.
Ghassan Gharib Zahran “was martyred by occupation bullets” at Deir Abu Mishal, near Ramallah, a health ministry statement said.
The Israeli army told AFP that “terrorists threw stones at Israeli vehicles in the Deir Abu Mishal area.”
Troops “responded by opening fire... which led to the injury of one of the terrorists,” the army added in a separate statement.
The boy’s cousin, Munther Zahran, said the dead boy was hit by a “bullet in the stomach” while he was in the main street in Deir Abu Mishal.
“The road is used by settlers and the army is constantly monitoring it,” he added.
Occupied by Israel since 1967, the West Bank has seen an escalation in violence since the Hamas attack on southern Israel set off a bitter conflict in the Gaza Strip over nine months ago.
At least 572 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers since October 7, according to Palestinian officials.
The Nur Shams camp, near Tulkarem, has also been the target of several army operations in recent weeks.
Army bulldozers tore up the camp’s main street and destroyed several buildings on Tuesday, an AFP journalist saw.
Palestinian Authority prime minister Mohammed Mustafa said there would be major “humanitarian repercussions” from the Israeli action.
“Recent events have shown the unprecedented destruction of essential infrastructure, including the water and electricity networks, and significant demolition” of Palestinian homes, Mustafa said in a statement.
Palestinian health ministry says teen killed in Israeli operation
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Palestinian health ministry says teen killed in Israeli operation
- The boy’s cousin said the dead boy was hit by a “bullet in the stomach” while he was in the main street in Deir Abu Mishal
- “The road is used by settlers and the army is constantly monitoring it,” he added
Iran warns Israel not to attack its infrastructure
- Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy
- On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran
“Any attack against infrastructure in Iran will provoke an even stronger response,” state television quoted Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying.
He spoke after Israel said it was preparing a response to Iran’s October 1 missile attack on its arch-enemy, its second on the country in six months.
On Monday, an official statement quoted Araghchi as saying Iran did not seek war in the region.
On Friday US President Joe Biden cautioned Israel against attacking oil installations in Iran, one of the world’s top 10 producers of crude.
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps General Rassul Sanairad warned Israel on Sunday any attack on nuclear or energy sites would cross a “red line.”
The Fars news agency quoted him as saying following the Israeli threat: “Some political leaders have spoken of a possible change in Iran’s nuclear policy.”
In 2022, after an official said Iran had the technical capability to produce a nuclear weapon, the country stressed there had been no change in its nuclear ambitions.
Last year Iran slowed the pace of its uranium enrichment, but then in late 2023 accelerated the production of 60 percent enriched uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Enrichment levels of around 90 percent are required for military use.
Iran has always denied any ambition to develop a nuclear weapons capability, insisting its activities are entirely peaceful.
Any attack on Iranian nuclear sites “would have an impact on the kind of response by Iran,” General Sanairad said.
Tehran says its attack on Israel, when some 200 missiles were fired, was a response to the death in a Beirut air strike of Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese movement Hezbollah, and of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran.
Iran blamed Israel for Haniyeh’s death, but Israel has not commented.
Gaza civil defense says Israeli strike kills 17
- The bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital
- Victims included children
GAZA: Gaza’s civil defense agency on Tuesday said an Israeli strike killed at least 17 people at a refugee camp in the center of the territory, as Israel’s military targets Hamas positions.
“The civil defense teams recovered 17 martyrs, including children, and several others who were wounded from the three-story home of the Abdul Hadi family, which was bombed by a missile from an (Israeli) warplane in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza,” agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said in a statement.
Bassal said the bodies of those killed and the wounded were taken to Al-Awda hospital in Nuseirat camp and to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the city of Deir el-Balah.
Medics at Al-Awda confirmed the toll.
Bassal earlier told AFP that several air strikes rocked central and northern parts of Gaza since the early hours of Tuesday.
Witnesses and rescuers also said Israeli military operations continued in Jabaliya, where troops launched a ground assault in recent days.
Over the past day, Israeli forces killed “approximately 20 terrorists” in air strikes in Jabaliya, the military said in a statement, adding troops also dismantled a weapons storage facility in the area.
On Sunday, the military said troops had encircled Jabaliya in response to indications Hamas was regrouping there despite a year of strikes and hard fighting.
In recent months, troops have returned to several areas across the Palestinian territory where they had previously conducted operations against Hamas, only to find militants rebuilding.
In a separate statement, the military announced it had killed three Hamas militants who had participated in the October 7 attack.
They were killed in an air strike on September 30 that struck a school in Daraj Tuffah area.
Hezbollah’s capabilities still intact despite Israeli claims: group’s deputy chief
- Naim Qasim says the group supports ceasefire efforts
- Hezbollah’s deputy chief vows to displace settlers from northern Israel
BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s deputy chief Naim Qasim said in a televised speech on Tuesday that the Iran-backed group’s capabilities were still intact and fighters were pushing back ground incursions into Lebanon despite Israel’s claims and “painful blows.”
Vowing to continue the “resistance”, Qasim said more Israelis will be displaced from nothern Israel as the militant group expands its rocket fire.
“We are firing hundreds of rockets and dozens of drones. A large number of settlements and cities are under the fire of the resistance,” he added in his address the day after the first year anniversary of the October 7 attacks which prompted the Israeli bombardment of Gaza and later Lebanon killing thousands and displacing millions. “Our capabilities are fine and our fighters are deployed along the frontlines."
He said, “Israel said it will return its settlers to northern Israel, but we vow to displace thousands more.”
Qasim noted that the displacement of one million Lebanese people amid the escalating violence was a “burden and sacrifice for the resistance.”
“The enemy thinks that it will weaken us by targeting innocent civilians, so the only solution for us is to resist and persist,” said Qasim.
He also said Israeli forces have not been able to advance after launching a ground incursion into Lebanon last week. The Israeli military said a fourth division is now taking part in the incursion, which has expanded to the west, but operations still appear to be confined to a narrow strip along the border.
Support for ceasefire efforts
Qasim stressed that the group supported the efforts of Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri - a Hezbollah ally - to secure a ceasefire.
“In any case, after the issue of a ceasefire takes shape, and once diplomacy can achieve it, all of the other details can be discussed and decisions can be taken,” Qasim said.
“If the enemy (Israel) continues its war, then the battlefield will decide,” he added.
While the group has replaced its slain commanders, Qassim said electing a new secretary general to succeed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut last month, had been challenging due to the war, but “we will announce it once it has been done.”
“No positions are vacant. All our roles are filled,” said the leader.
He noted that the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel was a war about who cries first, and the militant group would not cry first.
Praising Iran’s support to the “resistance”, Qasim accused the US of being an essential partner of the crimes in Gaza.
“The battle is not a battle for Iranian influence, but to help the Palestinians,” said Qasim.
He noted that Lebanon had always been a target for Israel even before its support for Gaza after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed to want to form a new Middle East. “We were always the target but the time had never come,” he said.
“But for 11 months, our rockets have drained Israel,” said Qasim as he vowed victory.
The regional tensions triggered a year ago by Palestinian armed group Hamas’ attack on southern Israel have spiraled to a series of Israeli operations by land and air over Lebanon and direct attacks by Iran onto Israeli military installations.
Iran warned Israel on Tuesday against any attacks on the Islamic Republic, a week after Tehran fired a barrage of missiles on it, putting the Middle East on edge.
EU’s Borrell says situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day
- A World Food Programme official also voiced concern about Lebanon’s ability to feed itself
BRUSSELS: The situation in Lebanon is getting worse by the day, the European Union’s foreign chief Josep Borrell told the European Parliament on Tuesday, adding a ceasefire should be achieved.
According to figures, some 20 percent of the Lebanese population had been forced to move, he said.
A World Food Programme official also voiced concern on Tuesday about Lebanon’s ability to feed itself, saying thousands of hectares of farmland across the country’s south has burned or been abandoned amid escalating hostilities.
“Agriculture-wise, food production-wise, (there is) extraordinary concern for Lebanon’s ability to continue to feed itself,” Matthew Hollingworth, WFP country director in Lebanon, told a Geneva press briefing, adding that harvests will not occur and that produce is rotting in fields.
At the same briefing, World Health Organization official Ian Clarke in Beirut warned that there was a much higher risk of disease outbreaks among Lebanon’s displaced population.
Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23.
Palestinian prime minister announces national team to reconstruct Gaza
RAMALLAH: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa has announced the formation of a national team to reconstruct Gaza.
In a live broadcast from Ramallah on Tuesday, Mustafa said the state had already provided more than 400,000 people in Gaza with aid so far and would continue to do so.
The cost of reconstructing the Gaza Strip could reach $50 billion, according to a UN Development Program official.
Abdullah Al-Dardari, director of the UNDP Regional Office for Arab States, highlighted the critical situation following any potential ceasefire.
He emphasized that the most dangerous phase would be the day after a ceasefire, as displaced individuals and those who had lost their homes anxiously awaited the start of the reconstruction process.
War in Gaza broke out after Hamas provoked Israel on Oct. 7. Israel’s military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians since, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
It has also displaced nearly all of the enclave’s 2.3 million residents, prompted a hunger crisis and led to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
The war in Gaza has spread through the region, drawing in Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Yemen and Iraq.
Israel has escalated ground and air offensives in recent weeks in Lebanon, killing hundreds, wounded thousands and displaced over a million.
Israel says it is attempting to dismantle Lebanese Iran-backed Hezbollah militants.
Iran launched a barrage of missiles against Israel this week to which Israel has not yet responded.
Israeli operations have also escalated in the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza.
The Israeli military said on Tuesday it had launched targeted raids against Hezbollah in southwest Lebanon, expanding its ground operations along the country’s coastline after deploying more troops.
Last week, Israel launched what it called a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a month-long war in 2006.
Beirut’s skyline lit up again late Sunday with new airstrikes, a day after Israel’s heaviest bombardment of the southern suburbs known as the Dahiyeh since it escalated its air campaign on Sept. 23.
Over the past year, the scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza has drawn some of the biggest global protests in years, including in the US, that saw weeks of pro-Palestinian college campus encampments.
Advocates have raised concerns over alarming antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter-protests related to the conflict. Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Muslims and Jews around the world.
