Category Archives: Palestinian Territories

Two British sisters killed and mother injured in West Bank shooting

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Sisters, believed to have migrated from the UK, died after car was shot at and crashed on Friday

Two sisters with British nationality have been killed and their mother seriously injured in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, keeping the region on edge even as the situation on Israel’s borders appeared to ease after Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip overnight.

The sisters were killed when their car crashed after it was shot at in the north of the territory on Friday, Israeli media reported. Local authorities said they were 16 and 20 years old, and their mother 48. The family have not yet been officially named due to a pause in some Israeli police procedures for the Jewish holy day, Shabbat.

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Israel launches airstrikes in Lebanon and Gaza Strip after ‘biggest rocket salvo since 2006’

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Rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon and second Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque stoke fears of further escalation

Israeli jets hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.

Two explosions were heard in Gaza late on Thursday. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted but Israel said its jets hit targets including tunnels and weapons manufacturing sites of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the blockaded southern coastal strip.

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Rocket fire from​ Lebanon and​ Gaza​​ ​hits Israel​ after​ second al-Aqsa mosque raid

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Israeli army says salvo fired from Lebanese territory, after officers entered religious compound to remove worshippers

Rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon and a second Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque in as many nights have stoked fears of further escalation in the region during a sensitive period of overlapping religious holidays.

On Thursday afternoon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the biggest salvo of rockets since the 2006 war had been fired from Lebanese territory into northern Israel. Most of the 34 projectiles were intercepted, but there were two minor injuries and a fire.

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Palestinians arrested and injured in Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque

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Police raid triggers West Bank clashes, cross-border strikes in Gaza Strip and fears of escalation

At least 14 Palestinians have been injured and hundreds arrested in an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, triggering clashes in the West Bank, cross-border strikes in the Gaza Strip and fears of wider escalation over the holiday period.

The violence in the early hours of Wednesday – during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday – comes after a year of spiralling bloodshed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also carries echoes of 2021, when clashes at Jerusalem’s holiest site helped start an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza.

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Mount of Olives becomes latest target in fight for control of Jerusalem

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Israeli settler movement is making life harder for Jerusalem’s Palestinians and erasing Christian character of holy city

Even in a city as storied as Jerusalem, some places are holier than others. The Mount of Olives, studded with churches marking events in the lives of Jesus and Mary, home to the most sacred Jewish cemetery in the world and tombs celebrated as those of the Sufi mystic Rabia al-Basri and the medieval scholar Mujir al-Din, is one such place.

Christians believe Jesus spent the last days of his life here, while according to the Hebrew Bible, the mount is where the resurrection will begin; in both Christianity and Islam, it is revered as the site Jesus ascended to heaven. The Mount of Olives’ summit, which gives the clearest view of the Temple Mount, or al-Haram al-Sherif, has served as a pilgrimage destination for all three faiths for millennia.

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‘I am proud of my work’: the women pushing boundaries in Gaza

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Palestinian women are fighting back, despite personal losses and scarcity of opportunities in the conservative territory

Rouzan al-Najjar, a paramedic from the Gaza Strip, knew that her work saving lives during the 2018 protests on the frontier with Israel challenged assumptions in the highly conservative Palestinian territory about the role of women.

“Being a medic is not only a job for a man,” the 21-year-old said in an interview shortly before she was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper.

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Israeli government approves far-right minister’s proposal of national guard

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Itamar Ben-Gvir says force will focus on Arab unrest as police chief voices concerns and opposition figures denounce it as ‘militia’

Israel’s government has authorised the establishment of a national guard proposed by the far-right security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who said it would focus on Arab unrest, as political rivals accused him of setting up a sectarian “militia”.

The previous government had begun moves to set up an auxiliary police force to tackle internal political violence after pro-Palestinian protests in mixed Jewish-Arab areas during the Israel-Gaza conflict in May 2021. However, that government ended before the force was finalised.

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Second killing in a day by Israeli forces in Jerusalem and West Bank

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Authorities say both deaths were in response to threats: a man grabbing a police officer’s gun at al-Aqsa mosque, and a car ramming near Beit Ummar

A man was killed by Israeli soldiers after a West Bank car ramming on Saturday, the army said, in an escalation threatening to end a relative lull during the holy month of Ramadan so far.

The Palestinian’s death came less than 24 hours after an Arab Israeli allegedly snatched a gun from a police officer at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and fired it before being shot dead.

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Man shot dead by police near Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque

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26-year-old man from an Arab village in southern Israel had grabbed and fired officer’s gun after being stopped for questioning, say police

A man detained near al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem was shot dead after he grabbed an officer’s gun and fired it, police said.

They identified the man as a 26-year-old resident of Hura, an Arab village in southern Israel.

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Concern over violence as Palestinians prepare for Ramadan in Jerusalem

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Bloodshed and hardline Israeli politics raise tensions on eve of Muslim holy month

In the Old City of Jerusalem and the Palestinian neighbourhoods surrounding it, preparations for Ramadan are under way: strings of festive lights and lanterns are ready to welcome sundown on Thursday, while sweet shops and bakers are busy making qatayef – fried dumplings filled with cream or sweet cheese, traditionally eaten during the Muslim holy month.

The period of fasting that commemorates Gabriel’s revelation of the Qur’an to Muhammad is a time for self-discipline, reflection and celebrations with family and friends. As with almost every religious holiday in the contested city, however, this year Ramadan is accompanied by worries of surging violence.

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Israeli minister condemned for claiming ‘no such thing’ as a Palestinian people

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Bezalel Smotrich’s comments come as far-right coalition pushes ahead with judiciary overhaul

An Israeli minister has claimed there is “no such thing” as a Palestinian people as Israel’s new coalition government, its most hardline ever, ploughed ahead with a part of its plan to overhaul the judiciary.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition said it was pushing a key part of the overhaul – which would give the coalition control over who becomes a justice or a judge – before the parliament takes a month’s holiday break next week.

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Palestinians enraged after Israeli forces shoot prone militant in head in Jenin

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Nidal Hazem among three men and a boy killed in ‘intelligence-based counter-terrorism activity’

The shooting in the head of a motionless Palestinian militant during an Israeli raid on Jenin in which three other people were killed has enraged Palestinians as images of the incident spread across social media.

Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the PLO executive committee, condemned the shooting on Thursday of Nidal Hazem, who was face down at the time. “This is a crime in the full sense of the word,” he said.

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Israeli troops kill three Palestinian gunmen in West Bank, says military

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Israel’s military says soldiers responded after coming under fire

Israeli forces shot and killed three Palestinian gunmen who opened fire on troops in the occupied West Bank, the military said, adding that another gunman turned himself in and was arrested.

The Palestinian health ministry confirmed three people were killed near the city of Nablus on Sunday. It did not immediately disclose their identities. The deaths bring to 80 the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the year, as Israel has stepped up arrest raids in the West Bank. Palestinian attacks have killed 14 people in 2023.

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Pentagon chief ‘disturbed’ by West Bank violence and warns against inflammatory rhetoric

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US defence secretary Lloyd Austin’s visit was disrupted by protests against prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial changes

The Pentagon chief, Lloyd Austin, has expressed his concerns over rising levels of violence against Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and warned against acts that could trigger more insecurity.

The US defence secretary’s talks in Israel came as Israeli police killed three suspected Palestinian militants in the West Bank and a Hamas gunman shot and wounded three people on a Tel Aviv street.

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At least six Palestinians killed in IDF raid on Jenin refugee camp

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Israeli forces enter camp to find gunman suspected of killing two brothers in Huwara last week

At least six Palestinians have been killed and 10 wounded in an Israeli army raid on the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, according to Palestinian officials, the latest bloody incident in a new chapter of violence across Israel and the Palestinian territories.

A fierce gun battle erupted in the crowded refugee camp on Jenin’s western outskirts on Tuesday afternoon after the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) mounted an operation to find the Palestinian gunman suspected of killing two Israeli brothers as they drove through the West Bank town of Huwara last week.

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Evangelical Christians flock to Republicans over support for Israel

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Powerful voting bloc looking to back pro-Israel politicians in hopes of dictating policy that fits their theological views

When Israel’s former ambassador to the US said his country should worry less about what American Jews think and concentrate on Christian evangelicals as the “backbone” of support for the Jewish state, he had in mind the Texas megachurch pastor John Hagee.

Hagee founded Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a group that claims 11 million members, who have had a significant influence on Republican party politics and in hardening Washington’s already strong support for Israel.

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Simon Schama urges UK Jews to condemn Israel’s ‘horrifying’ shift to far right

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Historian and TV presenter is among those to speak out as protest grows over settler violence against Palestinians

British Jews must speak out over the “complete disintegration of the political and social compact” that underpins the state of Israel, the historian Simon Schama has said.

His call comes amid mounting disquiet among Jews in the UK and the US at the threats to Israeli democracy, violent attacks on Palestinians and a police crackdown on Israeli protesters.

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Christian Aid claims it was subject to act of ‘lawfare’ by pro-Israel group

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The charity was taken to court for its work in the Middle East by the US body, whose director justifies litigation against NGOs that ‘cross the line’

A leading NGO has broken its silence on a bruising legal battle with a pro-Israeli advocacy group, describing it as an act of “lawfare” aimed at inflicting financial and reputational damage on organisations that do charitable work with Palestinians.

Christian Aid, the UK-based charity, was forced to spend about £700,000 defending itself against accusations that it had provided “material support” to terrorists, chief executive Patrick Watt has said.

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Israeli police arrest five over settler rampage in West Bank

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Officers says they expect to make more arrests over violence described by Israeli general as ‘pogrom’

Israeli police have arrested five suspects over a Jewish settler rampage in the occupied West Bank earlier this week that an Israeli general described as a “pogrom” and which followed a deadly Palestinian gun attack.

Shops in the Palestinian village of Huwara remained closed on army orders on Wednesday amid a heavy Israeli military presence, residents said. A Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers there on Sunday, prompting assaults by settlers on houses and cars during which one Palestinian was killed.

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Biden administration under pressure as Israel-Palestine violence escalates

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Advent of Israel’s most right-wing government, and spiralling violence, expose dangers of light-touch diplomacy

With an in-tray bulging with the war in Ukraine, the Chinese threat to Taiwan and the potential collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, the US state department has tried to avert its gaze from the clouds gathering over Israel and Palestine, but has now found it impossible to do so.

Since John Kerry, as secretary of state, expended diplomatic muscle trying to revive the Middle East peace process in the final year of the Obama administration, US Democrats have gently welcomed the rapprochement symbolised by the Abraham accords, but have not done much else. However, the advent of the most rightwing government in Israel’s history, and violence spiralling out of control, have shown the dangers of light-touch diplomacy.

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