Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad, described by family as US citizen, was apprehended after ‘resisting a check’

An 80-year-old Palestinian man, described by his family as a US citizen, has been found dead after being detained and handcuffed during an Israeli raid on a village in the occupied West Bank.

The body of Omar Abdalmajeed As’ad was found in Jiljilya in the early hours of Wednesday with a plastic zip-tie still around one wrist, villagers told Reuters.

Hisham Abu Hawash, who has been held without charge for more than a year, began refusing food in August

A Palestinian man on a hunger strike in protest against detention without charge has agreed to end his fast after a deal was struck for his release owing to fears of unrest if he died.

Hisham Abu Hawash, 40, a construction worker from Dura in the West Bank, had previously served time in an Israeli jail after pleading guilty to terrorism offences related to membership of Islamic Jihad. He was rearrested and has been held without charge or trial for more than a year, and began refusing food in August.

Participants in a West Bank immersive language project tell of the strong bonds being forged that counter the rise in settler violence

In the plywood hut in which Palestinian Iman al-Hathalin and her family have lived since their home was bulldozed by the Israeli authorities in 2014, the warmth from a rickety samovar is welcome. Outside the only window, the winter sky is blinding white: it floods the room with an icy light and sends shadows dancing up the flimsy walls.

Everyone has been ill lately, it seems, including Hathalin’s two-year-old daughter, who sleeps fitfully on her lap, and Maya Mark, her Arabic-speaking Israeli guest. “It is not exaggerating to say Maya is like my sister,” the 28-year-old said. “I was so worried when she was sick. We are family.”