JENIN: Palestinian militants said on Monday that an unusual deployment of Israeli tanks in the occupied West Bank, part of a major offensive that has displaced tens of thousands, may be a step toward annexation.
The torn-up streets surrounding the Jenin refugee camp in the territory’s north were empty on Monday, an AFP journalist reported, as three Israeli Merkava tanks stationed at higher vantage points overlooked the area.
Displaced camp residents occasionally entered through a back alley to retrieve belongings from their homes.
“We go back in to get things, whatever we can. We take the risk because we have to,” said 52-year-old Ahmad Al-Qahrawi.
“We had nothing when we left, no clothes, nothing. We go back to get clothes because it’s cold.”
Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to annex at least parts of the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, but any such proposal has been met with strong opposition from Palestinians and much of the international community.
In a weeks-long military operation in the north of the territory, launched around the time a truce took hold in the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces looking for militants have cleared three refugee camps and deployed tanks in Jenin.
Militant group Islamic Jihad said that the mass evacuations and first deployment of Israeli tanks in the territory since the early 2000s “confirms the occupation’s plans to annex the West Bank by force.”
The group, which has fought alongside Hamas in Gaza and has a strong presence in the northern West Bank, denounced “a new act of aggression” which it said was “aimed at uprooting our people from their land.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross said many residents who fled have taken shelter in “crowded mosques and schools.”
The damage has hampered displaced residents’ “access to basic needs such as clean water, food, medical care and shelter,” and the winter cold “has made it more difficult to survive,” it added in a statement.
"Lethal war-like tactics"
The United Nations’ humanitarian agency OCHA said the military offensive “appears to exceed law enforcement standards” and has had severe consequences.
“The continued use of lethal war-like tactics in residential areas is extremely concerning,” OCHA said.
Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank — a separate Palestinian territory — has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably by Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settler attacks have killed at least 900 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Palestinian attacks and clashes during military raids have killed at least 32 Israelis over the same period, according to official figures.
UN chief Antonio Guterres on Monday rejected “calls for annexation” and said he was “gravely concerned by the rising violence.”
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that “we are closely watching developments, and cannot hide our concern when it comes to the West Bank.”
Israel said on Sunday that its troops would remain for many months in the evacuated refugee camps in the northern West Bank — Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams — aiming to “prevent the return of residents and the resurgence of terrorism,” according to Defense Minister Israel Katz.
He put the number of displaced Palestinians at 40,000, the same figure provided by the United Nations which said the offensive has killed at least 51 Palestinians including seven children, and three Israeli soldiers.
Islamic Jihad accused Israel of attempting to consolidate “military domination by creating settler corridors that reinforce the separation of West Bank cities and their camps.”
The West Bank, excluding Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, is home to around three million Palestinian as well as nearly half a million Israelis who live in settlements that are illegal under international law.
Israeli tanks have not operated there since the end of the second Palestinian intifada, or “uprising,” in 2005.
Islamic Jihad says Israeli tanks part of ‘plans to annex West Bank by force’
https://arab.news/8numw
Islamic Jihad says Israeli tanks part of ‘plans to annex West Bank by force’
- Israeli leaders have repeatedly pledged to annex at least parts of the West Bank
- Israel deployed Merkava tanks in Jenin for the first time since the second Intifada
Syrian president to make first official visit to Kuwait
CAIRO: Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa will make his first official visit to Kuwait on Sunday accompanied by an official delegation.
“Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa, accompanied by an official delegation, is due to arrive in Kuwait on Sunday,” read a statement on KUNA News Agency.
Earlier this month, sources close to Al-Sharaa have reported that the Syrian president was planning a strip to the gulf state in the end of May.
On his gulf tour, Al-Sharaa had visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates.
On his trip to Kuwait, the Syrian president will meet the Kuwaiti leadership to discuss ways to boost bilateral relations.
Iran considers nuclear weapons ‘unacceptable’, FM says
- Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new nuclear agreement
- Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability
TEHRAN: Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that Iran considers nuclear weapons “unacceptable,” reiterating the country’s longstanding position amid delicate negotiations with the United States.
Western governments have long suspected Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear weapons capability to counter widely suspected but undeclared arsenal of its arch-foe Israel.
“If the issue is nuclear weapons, yes, we too consider this type of weapon unacceptable,” Araghchi, Iran’s lead negotiator in the talks, said in a televised speech. “We agree with them on this issue.”
Iran has held five rounds of talks with the United States in search of a new nuclear agreement to replace the deal with major powers President Donald Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The two governments are at odds over Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which Washington has said must cease but which Tehran insists is its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Nonetheless, Trump said Wednesday that “we’re having some very good talks with Iran,” adding that he had warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against striking its nuclear facilities as it would not be “appropriate right now.”
Israel has repeatedly threatened military action, after pummelling Iranian air defenses during two exchanges of fire last year.
Trump has not ruled out military action but said he wants space to make a deal first, and has also said that Israel, and not the United States, would take the lead in any such strikes.
Israel strike on south Lebanon kills one
- The Israeli army said the strike killed a regional commander “of Hezbollah’s rocket array"
BEIRUT: Lebanese official media said an Israeli strike killed one person in the south on Saturday despite a six-month-old ceasefire, as Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah militant.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) said a man was killed when an Israeli drone targeted his car as he was heading to pray at a mosque in Deir Al-Zahrani, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Israeli border.
Israel has continued to bomb Lebanon despite the November 27 truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of open war.
The Israeli army said the strike killed a regional commander “of Hezbollah’s rocket array.”
It charged that during the conflict, the operative “advanced numerous projectile attacks... and was involved recently in efforts to reestablish Hezbollah’s terrorist infrastructure” in south Lebanon.
Under the terms of the ceasefire, Hezbollah fighters were to pull back north of the Litani River, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, and dismantle military infrastructure to its south.
Israel was to withdraw all forces from Lebanon but it has kept troops in five areas it deems “strategic.”
The Lebanese army has deployed in the south and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure.
Syrian Kurdish commander in touch with Turkiye, open to meeting Erdogan
BEIRUT: The commander of Kurdish forces that control northeast Syria said on Friday that his group is in direct contact with Turkiye and that he would be open to improving ties, including by meeting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The public comments represented a significant diplomatic overture by Mazloum Abdi, whose Syrian Democratic Forces fought Turkish troops and Ankara-backed Syrian rebels during Syria’s 14-year civil war.
Turkiye has said the main Kurdish group at the core of the SDF is indistinguishable from the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which decided earlier this month to disband after 40 years of conflict with Turkiye.
Abdi told regional broadcaster Shams TV in an interview aired on Friday that his group was in touch with Turkiye, without saying how long the communication channels had been open.
“We have direct ties, direct channels of communication with Turkiye, as well as through mediators, and we hope that these ties are developed,” Abdi said. There was no immediate comment from Turkiye on Abdi’s remarks.
He noted his forces and Turkish fighters “fought long wars against each other” but that a temporary truce had brought a halt to those clashes for the last two months. Abdi said he hoped the truce could become permanent.
When asked whether he was planning to meet Erdogan, Abdi said he had no current plans to do so but “I am not opposed... We are not in a state of war with Turkiye and in the future, ties could be developed between us. We’re open to this.”
The Al-Monitor news website reported on Friday that Turkiye had proposed a meeting between Abdi and a top Turkish official, possibly Turkiye’s foreign minister or its intelligence chief.
A Turkish diplomatic source denied the report, saying “the claims about Turkiye and our country’s authorities” in the story were “not true,” without elaborating.
In December, Turkiye and the SDF agreed on a US-mediated ceasefire after fighting broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew Bashar Assad.
Abdi in March signed a deal with Syria’s interim President Ahmed Al-Sharaa to incorporate the semi-autonomous administration of northeast Syria into the main state institutions based in Damascus.
On Thursday, Erdogan accused the SDF of “stalling” implementation of that deal.
In the interview, Abdi denied accusations that the SDF was in contact with Israel.
“People have accused us of this. In this interview, I am saying publicly that we have no ties with Israel,” he said.
But he said his group supported good ties with Syria’s neighbors. When asked if that included Israel, Abdi responded, “with everyone.”
Israel blocks Ramallah meeting with Arab ministers, Israeli official says
- Palestinian Authority official says that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead is under discussion
- The move comes ahead of an international conference due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood
JERUSALEM: Israel will not allow a planned meeting in the Palestinian administrative capital of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, to go ahead, an Israeli official said on Saturday, after media reported that Arab ministers planning to attend had been stopped from coming.
The delegation included ministers from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, Palestinian Authority officials said. The ministers would require Israeli consent to travel to the West Bank from Jordan.
An Israeli official said the ministers intended to take part in “a provocative meeting” to discuss promoting the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a state would undoubtedly become a terrorist state in the heart of the land of Israel,” the official said. “Israel will not cooperate with such moves aimed at harming it and its security.”
A Palestinian Authority official said that the issue of whether the meeting in Ramallah would be able to go ahead was under discussion.
The move comes ahead of an international conference, co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, due to be held in New York on June 17-20 to discuss the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Israel has come under increasing pressure from the United Nations and European countries which favor a two-state solution to the Israeli Palestinian conflict, under which an independent Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state was not only a “moral duty but a political necessity.”
