Category Archives: West Bank

UAE refuses to join Gaza stabilisation force without clear legal framework

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Decision reflects wider regional doubts about terms of US-drafted plan to disarm Hamas

Plans for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force charged with disarming Hamas inside Gaza face growing opposition after the United Arab Emirates said it would not participate because it did not yet see a clear legal framework for the force.

Israel has already ruled out Turkey joining the force, and King Abdullah of Jordan has said Jordanian troops will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a contributor, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey last week and said it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was in place.

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Returned body parts were of Gaza hostage recovered two years ago, Israel says

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Netanyahu accuses Hamas of ‘clear violation’ of ceasefire as far-right ministers call for resumption of war

Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Hamas of a “clear violation” of the US-brokered Gaza ceasefire, saying the militant group had returned body parts of a hostage whose remains Israeli troops had recovered two years before.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect on 10 October, Hamas is required to return the remains of all Israeli hostages as soon as possible. In exchange, Israel has agreed to hand over 15 Palestinian bodies for each Israeli. Hamas has yet to return 13 bodies.

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Scottish fire engine destined for West Bank may return after 15-month Israeli seizure

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Dundee firefighters request return of donated appliance to avoid Nablus officials having to pay £16,000 Ashdod holding fees

A fully equipped fire engine donated by Dundee firefighters to their counterparts in the West Bank city of Nablus could be sent back to Scotland after being impounded for more than a year by Israeli authorities.

Firefighters in Dundee, which is twinned with Nablus, have regularly donated kit, equipment and medical supplies to the West Bank over the past 15 years, as well as bringing Palestinian firefighters to Scotland for training.

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‘Bibi-sitting’: US heavy-hitters take turns to supervise Israeli prime minister

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Marco Rubio warns Israeli politicians not to disrupt Gaza ceasefire after Knesset vote to annex West Bank

The parade of senior US officials travelling to the Middle East in recent weeks is a clear warning from the White House to Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli political factions to not disrupt the recent Gaza ceasefire – including by an annexation of the West Bank – or face a serious rift in relations with the US.

As the shaky ceasefire came into effect last week, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner quickly rushed to the region for consultations.

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Vance says Knesset votes on annexing West Bank are an ‘insult’ as Netanyahu halts progress

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US vice-president suggests votes were ‘stupid political stunt’ as Israeli PM orders a stop to any further work on bills

The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”.

The bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which would be tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, barely a week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza.

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Trump says he ‘will not allow’ Israel to annex West Bank after lobbying from allies

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British officials said they feared Trump would recognise Israeli control over the West Bank in retaliation for the UK, Australia, France and other recognising Palestine

Donald Trump has said he will not allow Israel to annex the occupied West Bank, rejecting calls from some far-right politicians in Israel who want to extend sovereignty over the area and in doing so make impossible the establishment of a Palestinian state.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. Nope, I will not allow it. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, adding “There’s been enough. It’s time to stop now.”

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Israel carrying out crime against humanity in Gaza, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas tells UN – as it happened

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Speech by Palestinian Authority president also says Hamas should have no role in governing Palestine and must disarm

Alimi says the policy of containment has given the Houthis time to expand its arsenal.

“It has become clear the peace we seek cannot be asked for but must be imposed by force,” he says.

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‘Tunnel vision’: how Israel is using archaeology for political ends

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Scientists say Netanyahu government and its US backers are trying to construct a history shorn of all complexity

When the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, visited Jerusalem this month, the itinerary his Israeli hosts laid on involved more archaeology than anything else. On his first day, Benjamin Netanyahu took Rubio underground to excavations near the Western Wall. On the second day, Israel’s prime minister gave his American visitor the honour of inaugurating a tunnel burrowed under a Palestinian district, along a Roman-era street nicknamed the Pilgrimage Road, in a “City of David” archaeological park established by an Israeli settler organisation.

Both events were intended to emphasise Jerusalem’s Jewish roots and its status, Netanyahu stressed, as “our eternal and undivided capital”.

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UK set to recognise Palestinian state on Sunday

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Keir Starmer expected to confirm move after concluding the situation has worsened significantly in recent weeks

The UK is expected to recognise a Palestinian state on Sunday after Israel failed to meet the conditions set out by Keir Starmer in July.

The prime minister is to make the announcement after concluding the humanitarian situation has deteriorated significantly in the past few weeks. The move comes despite pressure from the US and the families of hostages held by Hamas.

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UK preparing to recognise Palestinian state as early as Friday

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Move comes after Israel fails to meet UK conditions that would have postponed step

The UK is preparing to recognise the state of Palestine as early as Friday, after Israel failed to meet conditions that would have postponed the historic step, including a ceasefire in Gaza.

Keir Starmer insisted the timing of the UK announcement had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s visit, even though the US president said at a press conference that he disagreed with Britain’s decision, without elaborating.

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Guy Pearce and Annie Lennox join call to end ‘normalised horror’ for children in Gaza

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Stars read Michael Rosen’s 2014 poem Don’t Mention the Children in film released by Save the Children

Guy Pearce, Annie Lennox and Vanessa Redgrave are among the celebrities calling for an end to the “normalised horror” of children being killed in Gaza, as part of new short film.

Released by Save the Children and Choose Love, it features the stars reciting the words to a poem by Michael Rosen. Titled Don’t Mention the Children, the poem was written in 2014 in response to a Guardian article about the Israeli government banning a radio advert naming children killed in Gaza. It begins:

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Oscar-winning Palestinian says home in West Bank raided by Israeli soldiers

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Director Basel Adra reports his property was stormed while he was at a hospital with relatives injured in settler attacks

Palestinian Oscar-winning director Basel Adra has said that Israeli soldiers have conducted a raid at his West Bank home, searching for him and going through his wife’s phone.

Israeli settlers attacked his village on Saturday, injuring two of his brothers and one cousin, Adra told the Associated Press. He accompanied them to the hospital. While there, he said that he heard from family in the village that nine Israeli soldiers had stormed his home.

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Ursula von der Leyen calls for suspension of EU trade with Israel

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Commission president cites illegal West Bank settlement plans, Gaza and attempts to ‘undermine two-state solution’

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called for a suspension of trade with Israel, as she spoke of Europe’s “painful” inability to respond to the war on Gaza and ensuing humanitarian disaster.

In her most extended condemnation yet of the Israeli government, von der Leyen criticised plans for illegal settlements that would split the occupied West Bank in half, as well as incitement of violence by extremist Israeli ministers, as a “clear attempt to undermine the two-state solution”.

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Israel expands Gaza City offensive as UK decries West Bank settlement approval

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Construction would be ‘flagrant breach of international law’ and undermine two-state solution, foreign secretary says

Israel has announced it is expanding its military operations in Gaza City, as the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, condemned its approval of a huge new illegal settlement in the West Bank as a “flagrant breach of international law.”

The Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Effie Defrin said the IDF had begun the second phase of Operation Gideon’s Chariots in Gaza, which it launched in May.

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Israeli minister posts video online confronting Palestinian detainee in his prison cell – as it happened

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Far-right national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir posts video showing him confronting Marwan Barghouti, who has spent more than 20 years in Israeli custody

At least 16 Palestinian people, including five aid seekers, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources.

Here are some of the latest images being sent to us over the newswires from Gaza:

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Israel appears set to approve highly controversial 3,400-home West Bank settlement

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Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he believes E1 plan will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’

Israel appears set to give formal planning approval to a highly controversial settlement project for more than 3,400 new homes that has been frozen for decades and which critics say would split the occupied West Bank in half.

Strongly opposed by the international community, the so-called E1 plan would extend the existing Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim towards Jerusalem, further cutting occupied east Jerusalem from the West Bank, and further separating the north and south of the territory.

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Palestinian activist killed by settler filmed his shooting, footage shows

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B’Tselem publishes film showing killing of Awdah Hathaleen after suspect released by court over ‘weakened’ evidence

Awdah Hathaleen, the prominent Palestinian activist who was killed late last month by an extremist Jewish settler in the West Bank, filmed the moment he was shot, newly released video footage reveals.

Hathaleen, who worked on the filming of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land, which examined settler violence against the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta, was killed by Yinon Levi, a settler who was already under sanctions in the UK and EU for violent acts against Palestinians.

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Speaker Mike Johnson visits occupied West Bank to support Israeli settlers

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Palestinian foreign ministry condemns Republican visit for ‘undermining efforts to stop the war and cycle of violence’

Mike Johnson became the highest ranked US official to visit the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Republican House speaker drawing measures of praise and condemnation for his trip in support of Israeli settlements amid a worsening starvation crisis in Gaza.

The excursion followed Johnson’s arrival in Israel on Sunday on an unannounced visit with other Republican lawmakers, and his meeting with Israeli defense minister Israel Katz and foreign minister Gideon Saar.

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Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

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Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

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Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges – report

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Conflict monitoring group Action on Armed Violence says Israel is seeking to create a ‘pattern of impunity’

Nearly nine out of 10 Israeli military investigations into allegations of war crimes or abuses by its soldiers since the start of the war in Gaza have been closed without finding fault or left without resolution, according to a conflict monitor.

Unresolved investigations include the killing of at least 112 Palestinians queueing for flour in Gaza City in February 2024, Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said, and an airstrike that killed 45 in an inferno at a tented camp in Rafah in May 2024.

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