Illegal Israeli outposts surge in West Bank: BBC analysis

Israeli troops take position in the centre of Jenin during a raid on the Palestinian city on September 3, 2024, amid a large-scale military offensive launched a week earlier in the north of the occupied West Bank. (AFP)
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Updated 03 September 2024
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Illegal Israeli outposts surge in West Bank: BBC analysis

  • Investigation reveals close ties between settler groups, government
  • UN records over 1,100 settler attacks against Palestinians in past 10 months

LONDON: The number of Israeli settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank has surged in recent years, new analysis by the BBC has found.

There are now at least 196 outposts in the Palestinian territory, including farms, housing units and groups of caravans, with 29 established in the last year alone.

Despite being illegal under both Israeli and international law, outposts have been established using funding from organizations with close ties to the Israeli government.

Palestinians living near the outposts have suffered violent harassment and intimidation from settler communities, many of which employ armed militias with impunity.

The murky boundaries of the outposts often mean that their inhabitants come into contact with, and threaten, local Palestinians.

Ayesha Shtayyeh, a Palestinian grandmother, said she was held at gunpoint last October and told to leave the home that her family had owned for 50 years.

The settler who threatened her is believed to be Moshe Sharvit, who was sanctioned by the UK and US.

By using outposts, settlers are able to appropriate Palestinian land at a more rapid pace, the BBC found.

Analysis by the British broadcaster used data from Israeli anti-settlement groups and the Palestinian Authority, finding that almost half (89) of the 196 outposts had been established since 2019.

Azi Mizrahi, a former Israel Defense Forces commander in the area, admitted that outpost-building makes violence more likely.

“Whenever you put outposts illegally in the area, it brings tensions with the Palestinians … living in the same area,” he said.

Unlike settlements, outposts lack official Israeli planning approval, but authorities still turn a blind eye to them.

The UN’s top court in July ruled that Israel should end all settlement-building and withdraw settlers from the Occupied Territories.

Two organizations with close ties to the Israeli government were found by the BBC to have financed the establishment of new West Bank outposts.

The ties between the World Zionist Organization, Amana and the government reveal the deliberate nature of Israel’s land grabs in the West Bank.

The WZO, established more than a century ago, employs a “settlement division” that is financed entirely by Israeli public funding.

That division handles contracts and land allocations in the Occupied Territories, and has granted settlers the freedom to build new outposts on appropriated land.

Amana, a key settler organization, loaned settlers hundreds of thousands of shekels to build new outposts in the West Bank.

Both organizations used farming or grazing land categories as cover to support secret outpost-building, the BBC found.

Amana CEO Ze’ev Hever was secretly recorded in 2021 as saying: “In the last three years … one operation we have expanded is the herding farm (outposts). Today, the area (they control) is almost twice the size of built settlements.”

Another tactic employed by the government is to retroactively classify outposts as legal. Last year, authorities began legalizing 10 outposts and granted at least six others full legal status.

Moayad Shaaban, the chief of the PA’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said: “It reaches a point where Palestinians don’t have anything anymore. They can’t eat, they can’t graze, can’t get water.”

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned that settler violence in the West Bank has reached “unprecedented levels.”

OCHA recorded more than 1,100 settler attacks against Palestinians in the past 10 months alone. Those attacks led to the deaths of 10 Palestinians and injuries to 230.


Qatar says ‘we will need time’ for Gaza ceasefire

Updated 08 July 2025
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Qatar says ‘we will need time’ for Gaza ceasefire

  • Qatar says the meetings in Doha are focused on a framework for the talks
  • US President Donald Trump earlier voiced optimism about a possible breakthrough

DOHA: Qatar said Tuesday more time was needed for negotiations for a Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, after US President Donald Trump voiced optimism about a possible breakthrough.

“I don’t think that I can give any timeline at the moment, but I can say right now that we will need time for this,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said as indirect negotiations continued into a third day in Doha.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in Washington, meanwhile, on his third visit to the White House since Trump returned to power.

Trump, who is pushing for a ceasefire, expressed confidence a deal could be reached, saying: “I don’t think there is a hold-up. I think things are going along very well.”

Qatar, a mediator along with the United States and Egypt, said the meetings in Doha were focused on a framework for the talks, while a Palestinian official close to the negotiations said no breakthrough had been achieved so far.

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to join the talks in Doha this week.

On the ground, five Israeli soldiers were killed in combat in northern Gaza — one of the deadliest days this year for Israeli forces in the Palestinian territory.

Gaza’s civil defense meanwhile reported 29 killed in Israeli strikes on Tuesday.

Israel and Hamas began the latest round of negotiations on Sunday, with representatives seated in separate rooms within the same building.

At the White House, sitting across from Netanyahu, Trump said Hamas was willing to end the Gaza conflict, now in its 22nd month.

“They want to meet and they want to have that ceasefire,” Trump said when asked if ongoing clashes would derail talks.

An Israeli official accompanying Netanyahu to Washington said the proposal under discussion was “80-90 percent of what Israel wanted.”

“I believe that with military and political pressure, all the hostages can be returned,” the official told Israeli media.

According to Ariel Kahana of Israel Hayom daily, “President Trump and his advisers are currently exerting considerable effort to reach an agreement that would lead to the release of the hostages and could even end the war in Gaza.”

However, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir opposed negotiations with Hamas, saying that “there is no need to negotiate with those who murder our fighters; they must be torn to shreds.”

Netanyahu described the loss of five soldiers in Gaza as a “difficult morning” and mourned “our heroic soldiers who risked their lives in the battle to defeat Hamas and free all our hostages.”

Israeli military correspondents reported the deaths occurred due to improvised explosive devices near Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.

According to the Israeli military, 450 soldiers have been killed in the Gaza military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27, 2023.

Gaza’s civil defense agency reported 29 people killed in Israeli strikes across the territory, including three children.

Mahmud Bassal, a spokesman for the agency, said nine of those were killed in a drone strike on a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza.

“I was in front of my tent preparing breakfast for my four children – beans and a bit of dry bread. Suddenly, there was an explosion,” said Shaimaa Al-Shaer, 30, who lives in the camp.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military when contacted by AFP.

The war has created dire humanitarian conditions for Gaza’s more than two million people.

While Israel has the full backing of the Trump administration, the US leader has increasingly pushed for an end to what he called the “hell” in Gaza and said on Sunday he believed there was a “good chance” of an agreement this coming week.

“The utmost priority for the president right now in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza and to return all of the hostages,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

The US proposal included a 60-day truce, during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and several bodies in exchange for Palestinians detained by Israel, two Palestinian sources close to the discussions had earlier said.

Hamas was also demanding certain conditions for Israel’s withdrawal, guarantees against a resumption of fighting during negotiations, and the return of the UN-led aid distribution system, they said.

Of the 251 hostages taken by Palestinian militants during the October 2023 Hamas attack that triggered the war, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.

Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 57,575 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry. The UN considers the figures reliable.


Syria seeks European help as forest wildfires rage

Updated 08 July 2025
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Syria seeks European help as forest wildfires rage

  • The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought

DAMASCUS: Syria’s minister of emergencies and disaster management on Tuesday requested support from the European Union to battle wildfires that have swept through a vast stretch of forested land.
The fires have been burning for six days, with Syrian emergency crews struggling to bring them under control amid strong winds and severe drought.
Neighbouring countries Jordan, Lebanon and Turkiye have already dispatched firefighting teams to assist in the response.
“We asked the European Union for help in extinguishing the fires,” minister Raed Al-Saleh said on X, adding Cyprus was expected to send aid on Tuesday.
“Fear of the fires spreading due to strong winds last night prompted us to evacuate 25 families to ensure their safety without any human casualties,” he added.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) office in Syria, the fires impacted “some 5,000 persons, including displacements, across 60 communities.”
An estimated 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of forest and farmland — more than three percent of Syria’s forest cover — have burned, OCHA told AFP.
At least seven towns in Latakia province have been evacuated as a precaution.
Efforts to extinguish the fires have been hindered by “rugged terrain, the absence of firebreaks, strong winds, and the presence of mines and unexploded ordnance,” Saleh said.
Seven months after the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, Syria continues to face the repercussions of its 14-year civil war, which include explosive remnants scattered across the country.
With man-made climate change increasing the likelihood and intensity of droughts and wildfires worldwide, Syria has also been battered by heatwaves and low rainfall.
In June, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said Syria had “not seen such bad climate conditions in 60 years.”


Israel far-right minister demands end to Gaza ceasefire talks

Updated 08 July 2025
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Israel far-right minister demands end to Gaza ceasefire talks

  • Minister calls for ‘total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement’ in the Gaza Strip
  • Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory

JERUSALEM: Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir on Tuesday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call back a delegation conducting indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar for a ceasefire in Gaza.

“I call on the Prime Minister to immediately recall the delegation that went to negotiate with the Hamas murderers in Doha,” Ben Gvir said in a post on X on the third day of talks between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement.

Instead, the minister who lives in a West Bank settlement called for “total siege, military crushing, encouraging emigration (of Palestinians outside of Gaza), and (Israeli) settlement” in the Gaza Strip.

He called these measures “the keys to total victory, not a reckless deal that would release thousands of terrorists and withdraw the (Israeli army) from areas captured with the blood of our soldiers.”

A Palestinian official close to the talks said on Tuesday that the talks were ongoing, with a focus on “the mechanisms for implementation, particularly the clauses related to withdrawal and humanitarian aid.”

Netanyahu traveled to Washington for his third visit since Trump’s return to power, where the US president on Monday voiced confidence that a deal could be reached.

The Israeli leader ruled out a full Palestinian state, insisting Israel would “always” keep security control over the Gaza Strip.

Israel has been waging war on Hamas in Gaza for over 21 months, its troops gradually occupying more and more of the Palestinian territory.

According to the UN, 82 percent of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or displacement orders.

The war was triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack resulted in 1,219 deaths on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data.

Of the 251 people abducted that day, 49 are still hostages in Gaza, including 27 declared dead by the Israeli army.

At least 57,523 Gazans, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign, according to data from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The figures are deemed reliable by the UN.


South Sudan’s president fires army chief after seven months in post

Updated 08 July 2025
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South Sudan’s president fires army chief after seven months in post

  • No reason was given for the firing of army chief Paul Nang Majok

NAIROBI: South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir has fired the country’s army chief after seven months in the post and named a replacement, according to an announcement on state radio.
No reason was given for the firing of Paul Nang Majok in the announcement late on Monday. Majok had been in the post since December. The announcement said Kiir had appointed Dau Aturjong as the Chief of Defense Forces.
Majok was in charge of the army while fighting raged between the army and the White Army, an ethnic militia largely comprising Nuer youths, triggering the country’s latest political crisis.
“There has been a tradition that when you are appointed, or reassigned there are no reasons (given) for getting appointed and there are no reasons given for getting relieved. It is normal,” said Lul Ruai Koang, South Sudan army spokesperson.
South Sudan has been formally at peace since a 2018 deal ended the five-year conflict responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, but violence between rival communities flares frequently.
In March, First Vice President Riek Machar was put under house arrest, stirring fears of renewed conflict.
Information Minister Michael Makuei said the arrest was due to Machar contacting his supporters and “agitating them to rebel against the government with the aim of disrupting peace so that elections are not held and South Sudan goes back to war.”
Machar’s party has previously denied government accusations that it backs the White Army, which clashed with the army in the northeastern town of Nasir in March. In May, South Sudan’s army said it had recaptured the town from the White Army.


Two killed in attack off Yemen as Houthis claim they sank Greek ship

Updated 08 July 2025
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Two killed in attack off Yemen as Houthis claim they sank Greek ship

  • The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C has 22 crew members and armed guards on board
  • Ship was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats

ATHENS: Two crew members of the Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated, bulk carrier Eternity C were killed after an attack by sea drones and speedboats off Yemen on Monday evening, Liberia's shipping delegation told a meeting of the UN shipping agency IMO on Tuesday.

The deaths, the first since June 2024, bring the total number of seafarers killed in attacks on vessels in the Red Sea to six.

Monday’s attack 50 nautical miles southwest of the port of Hodeidah was the second strike against merchant vessels in the vital shipping corridor since November 2024, said an official at the European Union´s Operation Aspides, assigned to help protect Red Sea shipping.

The Liberia-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier Eternity C with 22 crew members – 21 Filipinos and one Russian – and armed guards on board, was attacked with sea drones and rocket-propelled grenades fired from manned speedboats, sources said.

At least two crew members were seriously injured, its manager, Cosmoship Management, said. The vessel’s bridge was hit and telecommunications were impacted, a company official said.

Maritime security sources said the vessel, which was unladen, has suffered severe damage and is currently listing. The crew was ordered to abandon the ship, but the lifeboats had been destroyed, two sources said.

The ship was adrift, an Aspides official said. At the time of the incident, no warship of the Aspides mission was close to the vessel.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, so far.

Earlier on Monday, the Houthis claimed responsibility for Sunday’s attack on the Greek-operated MV Magic Seas bulk carrier off southwest Yemen. The raid involved gunfire and rocket-propelled grenades from eight skiffs as well as missiles and four uncrewed surface vessels.

The 19 crew were forced to abandon the Liberian-flagged vessel as it was taking on water. They were picked up by a passing ship and have arrived safely in Djibouti, sources said.

The Houthis said they sunk the vessel. But Michael Bodouroglou, a representative of Stem Shipping, one of the ship’s commercial managers, said there was no independent verification.

Growing operational risk

The crew had reported fires at the vessel’s forepeak, in the bow. The engine room and at least two holds were flooded, and there was no electricity.

Aspides had earlier warned of a risk of explosion in the ship’s vicinity.

Since Israel’s war in Gaza against the Palestinian militant group Hamas began in October 2023, the Houthis have been attacking Israel and vessels in the Red Sea in what they say are acts of solidarity with the Palestinians.

Israel has struck Houthi targets in response, launching strikes on Monday for the first time in nearly a month. A US-Houthi ceasefire deal in May did not include Israel.

The latest attacks highlight a growing operational risk to commercial operators whose vessels have called at Israeli ports, Maritime security firm Diaplous said.

Magic Seas was carrying iron and fertilizers from China to Turkiye, a voyage that appeared low-risk as it had nothing to do with Israel, Bodouroglou said, adding that Stem Shipping had received no warning of the attack.

But the fleet of Allseas Marine, Magic Seas’ other commercial manager, had made calls to Israeli ports over the past year, according to analysis by UK-based maritime risk management company Vanguard Tech.

“These factors put the Magic Seas at an extreme risk of being targeted,” said Ellie Shafik, head of intelligence with Vanguard Tech.

The manager of ETERNITY C is also affiliated with vessels that have made calls to Israeli ports, security sources said.

John Xylas, chairman of the dry bulk shipping association Intercargo, said the crew were “innocent people, simply doing their jobs, keeping global trade moving.”

“No one at sea should ever face such violence,” he said.