RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: France and Britain granted 19.7 million dollars (18 million euros) in emergency aid to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday to help fund health and education services in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges” due to the war in Gaza, violence in the West Bank, and the Israeli government’s withholding of customs revenue, Palestinian Planning and International Cooperation Minister Wael Zaqout said.
“This financing is part of the emergency fund framework to guarantee the continuity of vital services in education and health,” he told a press conference in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.
The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank to keep the Palestinian economy afloat.
The PA has faced a serious budget crisis in recent years that has made it unable to pay salaries in full to public sector employees.
The problems worsened after Hamas’s unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7 last year, which led Israel to invade the territory.
In recent months, several senior Palestinian officials including the minister of the economy have warned about the risk of the West Bank economy collapsing.
“France remains committed to help build a viable Palestinian state, able to exercise its sovereignty over all its territories, including Gaza,” France’s consul-general in Jerusalem, Nicolas Kassianides, said in a statement.
The funds would “address the most essential and urgent needs of the Palestinian people,” he added.
British Consul-General Diane Corner said that her country’s contribution aimed to “support the salaries of 8,200 doctors, nurses and other employees in the health sector.”
The financial help “comes at a critical time and advances mutual priorities,” said Stefan Emblad, World Bank director in the Palestinian territories.
He added that the aid came on top of a recent $30 million grant from the World Bank, also to the emergency fund.
France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline
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France, Britain grant Palestinian Authority cash lifeline

- The Palestinian Authority (PA) faces “persistent challenges“
- The aid will be channeled to the Palestinian Authority via an emergency fund created in 2021 by the World Bank
Six Syrian security personnel killed after deploying to quell sectarian clashes, source says

Sunday’s fighting between Druze militiamen and Bedouin tribal fighters was the first time that sectarian violence erupted inside the city of Sweida itself, following months of tensions in the broader province.
The fighting left 30 people dead and prompted Syria’s security forces to deploy units to the city to restore calm and guarantee safe passage for civilians looking to leave, the defense ministry said in a statement.
But intense clashes broke out again on Monday, local news outlet Sweida24 reported. At least six Syrian troops were subsequently killed, a defense ministry source told Reuters.
It marked the latest episode of sectarian bloodshed in Syria, where fears among minority groups have surged since Islamist-led rebels toppled President Bashar Assad in December, installing their own government and security forces.
Sunni Muslim Arab rebel groups which fought Assad during the war agreed in December to dissolve into the defense ministry but efforts to integrate armed factions from minority groups — including Druze and Kurds — have largely stalled.
In southern Syria, efforts have been further complicated by Israel’s stated policy that it would not allow Syria’s new army to deploy south of Damascus and that Sweida and neighboring provinces should make up a demilitarized zone.
Interior Minister Anas Khattab said in a written statement carried on state media that the “absence of state institutions, especially military and security institutions, is a major cause of the ongoing tensions in Sweida and its countryside.”
Sunday’s violence erupted after a wave of kidnappings, including the abduction of a Druze merchant on Friday on the highway linking Damascus to Sweida, witnesses said.
Wizz Air to exit Abu Dhabi operations

- Wizz said geopolitical instability had led to repeated airspace closures around Abu Dhabi, hitting demand
- Failure to secure the flying rights for certain routes had also meant it was unable to grow in the region
LONDON: Low-cost carrier Wizz Air said on Monday it was quitting its Abu Dhabi operation after six years to focus on its main European market, citing geopolitical instability and limited market access.
Wizz, which originally focused on central and eastern Europe but expanded into Britain, Italy and Austria, said in future it would concentrate on its much more profitable European business.
Wizz said the geopolitical instability had led to repeated airspace closures around Abu Dhabi, hitting demand, while the impact of the hot environment in the Middle East had hurt engine efficiency, making it hard to operate its low-cost model.
Failure to secure the flying rights for certain routes had also meant it was unable to grow in the region as it had hoped, the airline said.
“They just couldn’t make money out of the Middle East,” Davy analyst Stephen Furlong said.
Wizz said it will stop local flights from Sept. 1, 2025 and would be contacting customers regarding refunds.
“Supply chain constraints, geopolitical instability, and limited market access have made it increasingly difficult to sustain our original ambitions,” Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said in a statement.
“While this was a difficult decision, it is the right one given the circumstances,” he added.
Wizz Air is in talks with Airbus about scaling back its order for 47 A321XLR, a longer range aircraft, and converting some of them to regular A321 jet.
“We have 47 XLRs on order. We are going to scale that back,” Varadi said.
“We have conversion rights for the majority of that of that aircraft order. So we are talking to the manufacturer.”
Iran says ‘no specific date’ for US nuclear talks

- Iran had been negotiating with the US before Israel began strikes on its nuclear facilities last month
- The US launched its own set of strikes against Iran’s nuclear program on June 22
TEHRAN: Iran said Monday it had “no specific date” for a meeting with the United States on Tehran’s nuclear program, following a war with Israel that had derailed negotiations.
“For now, no specific date, time or location has been determined regarding this matter,” said foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei of plans for a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and US envoy Steve Witkoff.
Iran had been negotiating with the United States before Israel began strikes on its nuclear facilities last month, which Washington later joined.
Araghchi and Witkoff met five times, starting in April, without concluding a deal, before Israel launched surprise strikes on June 13, starting a 12-day war.
“We have been serious in diplomacy and the negotiation process, we entered with good faith, but as everyone witnessed, before the sixth round the Zionist regime, in coordination with the United States, committed military aggression against Iran,” said Baqaei.
The United States launched its own set of strikes against Iran’s nuclear program on June 22, hitting the uranium enrichment facility at Fordo, in Qom province south of Tehran, as well as nuclear sites in Isfahan and Natanz.
The extent of the damage from the strikes remains unknown.
With its own strikes, numbering in the hundreds, Israel killed nuclear scientists and top-ranking military officers as well as hitting military, nuclear and other sites.
Iran responded with missile and drone attacks on Israel, while it attacked a US base in Qatar in retaliation for Washington’s strikes.
Israel and Western nations accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran has consistently denied.
While it is the only non-nuclear power to enrich uranium to 60-percent purity, close to the level needed for a warhead, the UN’s atomic energy watchdog has said it had no indication that Iran was working to weaponize its stockpiles.
Blast in residential block near Iran’s Qom, source says not Israeli attack

- The agency said the residents of the building were ordinary citizens
DUBAI: An explosion at a residential building injured seven people in the Pardisan neighborhood of Qom city, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported, going on to quote an unnamed source saying it was not the result of any Israeli attack.
“Four residential units were damaged in the blast. Initial assessments show that the cause of the incident was a gas leak, and follow-ups are continuing in this regard,” the director of Qom’s fire department told Fars.
The agency said the residents of the building were ordinary citizens.
Iran’s regional arch-rival Israel has a record of assassinating Iranian nuclear scientists, whom it considers part of a program that directly threatens Israel. Tehran maintains its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.
Since the end of a 12-day air war last month between Iran and Israel, in which Israel and the United States attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities, several explosions have occurred in Iran, but authorities have not blamed Israel.
“People should not worry about rumors (of Israeli attacks). If a hostile action occurs in the country, the news will immediately reach the people and alarm bells will simultaneously be activated in the Occupied Territories,” Fars quoted an unnamed Iranian source as saying following the blast in Qom.
Anger turns toward Washington in West Bank town mourning two men killed by settlers

- Residents of area call for stronger action from Washington
- Many residents have American citizenship, family ties to US
AL-MAZRA’A ASH-SHARQIYA, West Bank: Frustration among Palestinians grew toward the United States on Sunday as mourners packed the roads to a cemetery in the Israeli-occupied West Bank town of Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya for the burial of two men, one of them a Palestinian American, killed by settlers.
Palestinian health authorities and witnesses said Sayfollah Musallet, 21, was beaten to death, and Hussein Al-Shalabi, 23, was shot in the chest by settlers during a confrontation on Friday night.
Most of the small town’s roughly 3,000 residents share family ties to the United States and many hold citizenship, including Musallet, who was killed weeks after flying to visit his mother in Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya, where he traveled most summers from Tampa, Florida.
“There’s no accountability,” said his father Kamel Musallet, who flew from the United States to bury his son.
“We demand the United States government do something about it ... I don’t want his death to go in vain.”
Israeli killings of US citizens in the West Bank in recent years include those of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, Palestinian American teenager Omar Mohammad Rabea and Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi.
A US State Department spokesperson said on Friday it was aware of the latest death, but that the department had no further comment “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the victim.
Many family and community members said they expected more, including that the United States would spearhead an investigation into who was responsible.
A US State Department spokesperson on Sunday referred questions on an investigation to the Israeli government and said it “has no higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.”
The Israeli military had earlier said Israel was probing the incident. It said confrontations between Palestinians and settlers broke out after Palestinians threw rocks at Israelis, lightly injuring them.
‘Betrayal’
Musallet’s family said medics tried to reach him for three hours before his brother managed to carry him to an ambulance, but he died before reaching the hospital.
Local resident Domi, 18, who has lived in Al-Mazr’a Ash-Sharqiya for the last four years after moving back from the United States, said fears had spread in the community since Friday and his parents had discussed sending him to the United States. “If people have sons like this they are going to want to send them back to America because it’s just not safe for them,” he said.
He had mixed feelings about returning, saying he wanted to stay near his family’s land, which they had farmed for generations, and that Washington should do more to protect Palestinians in the West Bank.
“It’s a kind of betrayal,” he said.
Settler violence in the West Bank has risen since the start of Israel’s war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza in late 2023, according to rights groups.
Dozens of Israelis have also been killed in Palestinian street attacks in recent years and the Israeli military has intensified raids across the West Bank.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 2.7 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war.
US President Donald Trump in January rescinded sanctions imposed by the former Biden administration on Israeli settler groups and individuals accused of being involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Malik, 18, who used to visit Musallet’s ice-cream shop in Tampa and had returned to the West Bank for a few months’ vacation, said his friend’s death had made him question his sense of belonging.
“I was born and raised in America, I only come here two months of a 12-month year, if I die like that nobody’s going to be charged for my murder,” he said, standing in the cemetery shortly before his friend was buried. “No one’s going to be held accountable.”