WEST BANK, Palestinian Territories: The Israeli military on Tuesday said it killed three Hamas members in an air strike near the occupied West Bank city of Tubas, after the Palestinian health ministry reported two dead.
“Three Hamas terrorists who planned an imminent terrorist attack were eliminated” when the Israeli air force struck vehicles in the Aqaba area near Tubas, the military said.
Following the strike, “soldiers conducted a targeted raid in the vicinity of the strike, locating four weapons,” it added.
The Palestinian health ministry had earlier said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Aqaba killed two Palestinians and wounded one.
All three Palestinians were transported to a hospital in Tubas, it added, but later said Israeli forces raided the same hospital, which the army denied in a statement to AFP.
The Israeli military had earlier told AFP that the air force, “acting on intelligence, struck a terror cell that was about to carry out an attack” in the Aqaba area.
It said an army unit “was then dispatched to collect the bodies and operated in the area of the Turkish Hospital in Tubas.”
However, it added, “they did not enter the hospital.”
Israel often seizes the bodies of Palestinians killed during operations, particularly those who belonged to militant groups, although an AFP journalist present near the hospital at the time of the operation did not see soldiers carrying bodies.
The Palestinian health ministry said the Israeli army besieged the hospital, before breaking into it, shooting inside, “assaulting staff and patients, and arresting a number of them.”
The AFP journalist in Tubas saw Israeli armored vehicles stationed outside the hospital and soldiers deployed around it.
The journalist saw Israeli soldiers exiting the hospital and detaining staff, some of them wearing scrubs or doctor’s gowns, before loading them into the armored vehicles.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the war in Gaza erupted on October 7 last year after Hamas’s attack on Israel.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 787 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
Palestinian attacks on Israelis have also killed at least 24 people in the West Bank in the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
Israel says killed three Hamas members in strike on West Bank
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Israel says killed three Hamas members in strike on West Bank
- Following the strike, “soldiers conducted a targeted raid in the vicinity of the strike, locating four weapons,” it added
- The Palestinian health ministry had earlier said an Israeli strike on a vehicle in Aqaba killed two Palestinians and wounded one
US designates Yemen’s Houthis ‘foreign terrorist organization’
WASHINGTON: The US State Department on Tuesday said it was designating Yemen’s Houthi movement, known formally as Ansar Allah, as a “foreign terrorist organization,” after US President Donald Trump’s call for the move earlier this year.
More to follow...
Palestinian president welcomes Egyptian plan to rebuild Gaza
CAIRO: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbad said on Tuesday he welcomed an Egyptian plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip and urged US President Donald Trump to support such a plan that would not involve displacing Palestinian residents of the enclave.
Speaking at an Arab League summit that aims to counter Trump’s “Gaza Riviera” plan, Abbas also said he was ready to hold presidential and parliamentary elections if circumstances allow, adding his Palestinian Authority was the only legitimate governing and military force in the Palestinian Territories.
Abbas said that he would issue a general amnesty for all those dismissed from the Fatah movement which rules the West Bank.
UN’s Guterres supports Arab-led efforts to mobilize support for Gaza’s reconstruction
- Speaking at the Cairo summit, Guterres also called for the resumption “without delay” of negotiations on continuing a ceasefire in Gaza
- He also expressed concern over an escalation of violence in the West Bank
CAIRO: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday he supported an Arab-led initiative to mobilize support for reconstruction of the Gaza Strip.
Egypt presented a plan for reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave on Tuesday at an Arab League summit in Cairo. The plan, seen by Reuters, aims to counter US President Donald Trump’s proposal to build a Middle East “Riviera” in the Gaza Strip.
Speaking at the Cairo summit, Guterres also called for the resumption “without delay” of negotiations on continuing a ceasefire in Gaza, and he expressed concern over an escalation of violence in the West Bank.
Palestinian president meets Syrian counterpart for first time since Assad’s fall
- Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmad Al-Sharaa meet in Cairo on sidelines of emergency Arab summit
- Both leaders oppose Israeli policies that threaten to further encroach on their territory
LONDON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has met the president of the Syrian Arab Republic for the first time since the change of power in Damascus last December.
Abbas and Ahmad Al-Sharaa met in Cairo on the sidelines of an emergency Arab summit that will focus on the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and oppose US President Donald Trump’s proposal to displace Palestinians in Gaza and “take over” the enclave.
Abbas and Al-Sharaa discussed the latest developments in the occupied West Bank and stressed that the Gaza Strip was an integral part of Palestine’s territory.
Abbas said that the priorities were to maintain the ceasefire in Gaza, provide aid, and for Israeli forces to withdraw from the enclave, according to the Palestine News Agency.
Both Abbas and Al-Sharaa are opposing Israeli policies that threaten to further encroach on their territory. The Israeli government’s expansion of settlements in the West Bank, the displacement of thousands of Palestinians from refugee camps, and its plans to annex part of the territory jeopardize the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state.
Following the fall of Bashar Assad’s regime in December, Israeli forces have occupied parts of the southern Syrian region, including the strategically important summit of Mount Hermon, shattering a decades-long agreement.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, the secretary-general of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and Diab Al-Louh, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, were also present at the meeting.
Sudan’s RSF signs ‘transitional constitution’: alliance member
- “The constitutional document was signed in Nairobi last night by all parties involved in the signing of the founding charter,” said Ahmed Tuqud Lisan
- The next step would be to form the government, which will “be announced inside Sudan“
NAIROBI: Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and its allies have signed a constitution paving the way for the formation of a parallel government, a member of its coalition said Tuesday.
“The constitutional document was signed in Nairobi last night by all parties involved in the signing of the founding charter,” Ahmed Tuqud Lisan, a member of the preparatory committee of the Sudan Founding Alliance told AFP.
For nearly two years, the RSF and the regular army have been in a devastating war that has uprooted more than 12 million people and caused what the United Nations calls the world’s worst hunger and displacement crises.
Last week, the RSF and its alliance of political and military partners signed a charter vowing to establish a “government of peace and unity” in rebel-controlled areas of Sudan.
The “transitional constitution” signed on Monday documents the “tasks of the transitional period, the decentralized governing system and the structures of the executive authority,” Lisan said.
The next step would be to form the government, which will “be announced inside Sudan,” he added.
Kenya has been criticized for hosting the RSF and its allies, with Sudan’s army-aligned government recalling its ambassador in protest last month.
Sudan’s foreign ministry accused Kenyan President William Ruto of acting on “his commercial and personal interests with the militia’s regional sponsors.”
The RSF’s constitution, seen by AFP, was signed by 24 signatories including RSF deputy Abdel Rahim Dagalo.
The war between the RSF and the army has torn the country in two, with the army controlling the north and east, while the RSF holds nearly all of the western region of Darfur and swathes of the south.
