Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

Israel treats Palestinian territories like colonies, says UN rapporteur

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Francesca Albanese says Israel is maintaining occupation to get as much land as possible for Jewish people

Israel treats the Palestinian territories as its colonies, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories has said on her first visit to London since her appointment last year.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and human rights academic, has faced calls to resign by Israeli government ministers, such as Amichai Chikli, who accused her of “spewing hatred and antisemitism”, and Zionist groups have described her as biased.

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Gaza Strip fighting intensifies on third day despite Egypt ceasefire efforts

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Clashes between Israel and militants leave 29 dead so far, with airstrikes targeting homes of Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders

Fighting between Israel and militant groups in the blockaded Gaza Strip has intensified for the third day despite ceasefire efforts brokered by Egypt, in the worst bout of violence in the region in months that has killed 29 people in Gaza, including at least 10 civilians, and one civilian in Israel.

The latest conflagration began in the early hours of Tuesday, when Israel launched surprise airstrikes targeting the homes of three senior commanders in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the second most powerful group in the strip after Hamas, despite a fragile ceasefire in place since a day of cross-frontier fire last week.

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Shireen Abu Akleh: friends and family call for justice on anniversary of killing

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Israeli forces admit ‘high possibility’ Al Jazeera reporter was shot by sniper at West Bank refugee camp

Family members, friends and colleagues of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was almost certainly fatally shot by an Israeli sniper, have renewed calls for justice on the first anniversary of her killing, during a week of memorials and events celebrating her life.

Abu Akleh, a household name in the Arab world who worked for Qatar-based Al Jazeera, was shot in the head in the slumlike refugee camp on the outskirts of the occupied West Bank city of Jenin on 11 May last year while covering an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid. International outrage at the reporter’s death was fuelled by scenes of violence at her funeral in Jerusalem, when Israeli police attacked pallbearers, almost causing them to drop the coffin.

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Gaza: fighting continues in defiance of reported ceasefire

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Tit-for-tat rocket fire follows claims that Egyptian officials brokered pause in conflict between Israeli forces and Palestinian militants

Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the blockaded Gaza Strip have continued fighting despite reports of ceasefire negotiations, in a bloody episode of violence that has left 21 people in Gaza dead and brought daily life in Tel Aviv to a standstill.

An Egyptian state-run station with close ties to the security agencies said on Wednesday evening that Egyptian officials – who frequently mediate in the conflict – had successfully brokered a pause in the fighting. But the tit-for-tat fire continued late into the night, suggesting the truce had not held.

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Israel bombs Gaza Strip, killing three Islamic Jihad leaders and nine civilians

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad vow to retaliate after Israeli launches overnight strikes despite ceasefire

Israeli airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad have killed three senior operatives and at least nine civilians, including three children, according to the Israeli army and Palestinian officials.

A total of 40 jets took part in Operation Shield and Arrow, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said, conducting strikes that lasted about two hours starting at 2am (12am BST) on Tuesday.

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Israeli raid kills three men accused of killing UK-Israeli woman and daughters

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Two alleged Hamas operatives and alleged accomplice shot dead in operation in occupied West Bank

Israel said its security forces shot dead three Palestinians blamed for killing a British-Israeli woman and her two daughters last month, in a raid on Thursday in the occupied West Bank.

Two suspects in the killings, members of the militant group Hamas, and a third man accused of helping them were killed in an operation in Nablus by the army, police and the security service Shin Bet, a statement said.

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Israel strikes Gaza as unrest continues after death of hunger striker

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Rockets were fired towards Israel from Gaza after the death of Khader Adnan was announced

Israeli jets struck targets across Gaza as armed groups there fired rocket barrages toward Israel in response to the death of a Palestinian hunger striker in Israeli custody.

Plumes of smoke spiralled into the sky late on Tuesday as the jets hit targets that the Israeli military said included weapons manufacturing sites and training camps of Hamas, the Islamist group that governs the blockaded coastal enclave.

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Palestinian Khader Adnan dies in Israel jail after 87-day hunger strike

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Adnan, who was affiliated with the Palestinian militant Islamic Jihad group, was found unconscious in his cell early on Tuesday

Militants in the blockaded Gaza Strip have launched rockets at Israel in response to the death after a hunger strike of a well-known political figure affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Khader Adnan, a 44-year-old father of nine from near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, was found unconscious in his cell in the early hours of Tuesday after an 87-day-long hunger strike during which he refused medical treatment, the Israeli prison authority said. He was transferred from the maximum-security detention facility in the central Israeli city of Ramle to a local hospital, where he was declared dead.

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Gun-toting, prayer-reciting protesters throng Jerusalem to back judicial overhaul

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Large numbers march on Knesset in biggest rightwing protest in Israel in nearly two decades

More than 150,000 Israelis in favour of the government’s divisive judicial overhaul have taken part in a demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem, in the biggest rightwing protest in the country in nearly two decades.

Protesters from all over Israel, as well as settlers who travelled in buses from the occupied West Bank, chanted “the people demand judicial reform” and danced and sang as the rally got under way at sunset on Thursday, sending a message before the beginning of the Knesset’s summer session next week. Exact numbers were hard to verify, but Israeli media reported between 150,000 – 200,000 people took part.

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China ready to broker Israel-Palestine peace talks, says foreign minister

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China is positioning itself as a regional mediator after brokering the restoration of ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia

China’s foreign minister told his Israeli and Palestinian counterparts his country is ready to help facilitate peace talks, state media reported.

The separate phone calls between Chinese foreign minister, Qin Gang, and the Israeli and Palestinian top diplomats comes amid recent moves by Beijing to position itself as a regional mediator.

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Jerusalem holy site visits restricted after Israeli soldiers shoot two Palestinians

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Al-Aqsa mosque closed to non-Muslims and tourists after gunmen who shot at an army post killed by security forces

Israel has halted visits by non-Muslims and tourists to a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, as its military said soldiers had shot dead two Palestinian gunmen in the occupied West Bank, as a wave of unrest showed no sign of subsiding.

Last week, an Israeli police raid at the al-Aqsa mosque compound, a tinder box in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, triggered rocket attacks from Gaza, south Lebanon and Syria that drew Israeli air and artillery strikes.

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Thousands gather for West Bank funeral of British-Israeli shooting victim

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Lucy Dee, 48, died on Monday after gun attack that also killed two of her daughters

Thousands of mourners have gathered at an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank for the funeral of a British-Israeli woman who died after a shooting attack days earlier.

Israelis holding national flags lined the roads in the rain leading to the funeral for Lucy Dee in Kfar Etzion on Tuesday.

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Palestinian boy shot dead by Israeli troops in West Bank refugee camp

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Teenager killed and two others wounded during Israeli arrest operation amid escalating tensions

Israeli troops have fatally shot a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded two other people during an arrest operation in a West Bank refugee camp, as tensions continued to escalate in the occupied territories.

Mohammed Balhan was shot in the head, chest and abdomen in the Aqabat Jabr camp near Jericho, according to local Palestinian official Hani Obeidat, who called it an “unjustifiable crime”. A video showed him lying dead on a stretcher in the hospital, his head bandaged and his mother wailing as she leaned over his body.

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Crises on multiple fronts threaten Benjamin Netanyahu’s grip on power

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Support for prime minister wanes as his ‘plot to overturn Israel’s democracy’ is seen as threat to national security

On Friday afternoon, Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, found himself standing at the side of a remote road in the vast desert valley that runs the length of the occupied West Bank’s frontier with Jordan.

Along with his defence minister, Yoav Galant, Netanyahu was inspecting the scene of a shooting attack earlier in the day that killed British-Israeli sisters Maia and Rina Dee, 20 and 15, and left their 45-year-old mother Lucy fighting for her life. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) search for the perpetrator is still under way.

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Holiday rites without clashes in Jerusalem but region braces for further violence

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Al-Aqsa mosque compound tensions have triggered cross-border fighting in Gaza and drawn in Lebanon and Syria

Simultaneous Muslim and Jewish holiday rites at Jerusalem’s flashpoint Temple Mount or al-Aqsa mosque compound have passed without major clashes after rare cross-border airstrikes and rocket fire between Israel and Syria overnight, and fears of wider conflict in the Middle East after escalations on multiple fronts.

About 15,000 Jewish worshippers gathered at the Western Wall in occupied East Jerusalem, the holiest site at which Jews can pray, on Sunday morning for a benediction prayer marking Passover. At the same time, thousands of Palestinians performed dawn and midday Muslim prayers at al-Aqsa, an esplanade on the other side of the wall, as part of observances during the holy month of Ramadan. Christian pilgrims also flooded the Old City to mark Easter Sunday, in a rare convergence of celebrations in the three different faiths.

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Israel launches strikes on Syria after rocket fire as violence flares

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Attacks come amid sharply increased Israel-Palestinian tensions following Israeli raids this week on al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem

Israeli jets hit Syrian military targets in response to rockets launched towards Israeli-controlled territory overnight, Israel’s military said, as violence flared again after cross-border exchanges of fire during the week.

State media in Syria reported explosions in the vicinity of the capital Damascus as Israel said its forces continued to hit Syrian territory after six rockets were fired overnight towards the Golan Heights.

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British-Israeli sisters killed in West Bank gun attack named

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Rina and Maia Dee, aged 15 and 20, identified on Twitter by Benjamin Netanyahu as mother remains in intensive care

The two British-Israeli sisters killed in a gun attack in the occupied West Bank on Friday have been named as Rina and Maia Dee.

Rina, 15, and Maia, 20, who were born in London, were identified on Twitter by the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

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Tensions run high across Israel after car ramming attack leaves tourist dead

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Further violence feared after Arab-Israeli man drives his vehicle into busy city promenade following a West Bank shooting

On 8 April 2022, a Palestinian gunman entered a crowded bar in Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial capital, and opened fire, killing three people and wounding 10. This weekend, on the anniversary of that attack, an Arab-Israeli man rammed his car into pedestrians on the city’s seaside promenade, killing an Italian tourist and injuring seven more people.

That attack followed a shooting earlier in the day in the north of the occupied West Bank that killed two British-Israeli sisters, aged 15 and 20, and left their 48-year-old mother in critical condition after their car veered off the road.

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Israeli government calls up reservists after car attack in Tel Aviv

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Police to deploy extra battalions in city centres as Benjamin Netanyahu also directs army to mobilise additional forces

Israel began calling up police and army reservists on Saturday after separate attacks killed three people, including an Italian tourist and two British-Israeli sisters, in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

Despite appeals for restraint, violence has surged since Israeli police clashed with Palestinians inside Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday, with Israel bombarding Gaza and Lebanon in response to rocket fire by Palestinian militants.

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Violence in Tel Aviv leaves one dead and five injured

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Italian tourist dies and Britons among injured after driver rams people near beach, Israeli officials report

An Italian man has died and five other British and Italian tourists have been injured in an attack in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv, the latest episode of violence after several days of rising tensions sparked fears of a broader conflagration in the region.

The 30-year-old Italian died from a gunshot wound, Israel’s rescue service said on Friday night, the Jewish holy day. At the same time, Israeli police said a car had been driven into people near the beach, and that the driver had been shot and killed.

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