Palestinian teen describes brutal attack by Israeli settlers

Palestinian youth, Tareq Zubeidi, 15, shows an image of his wounds at his house, in the West Bank village of Silat ad-Dhahr, Aug. 31, 2021. (AP)
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Updated 10 September 2021
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Palestinian teen describes brutal attack by Israeli settlers

  • While there were no witnesses, the Aug. 17 incident took place in an area that sees frequent violence
  • Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military law, giving them few avenues for legal recourse

SILAT Al-DHAHR: More than two weeks after the attack, Tareq Zubeidi still spends most of his time in bed, too scared to leave home even if the wounds on his feet allowed him to walk normally.

The 15-year-old is haunted by the memory of what he describes as a brutal attack by Israeli settlers, who he says beat him with clubs, tied him to a tree and burned the soles of his feet.

“When I sit by myself I start thinking about all of them, and then I start sweating and my heart rate starts to increase,” Zubeidi said.

While there were no witnesses to corroborate Zubeidi’s account, the Aug. 17 incident took place in an area that sees frequent violence between hard-line Jewish settlers and local Palestinians.

B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group that monitors settler violence, said it was not able to verify all the details of Tareq’s account but that “it is clear that the boy was physically and mentally abused.”

The group documented at least seven settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in the area around Zubeidi’s village in the last two years. It says that when the Israeli military intervenes, it often sides with the settlers. The Palestinians claim the West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as the main part of a future independent state.

The Israeli military says troops were dispatched to Homesh, a nearby settlement that was forcefully evacuated in 2005, after reports of Palestinians throwing rocks. When the soldiers arrived they found settlers chasing a Palestinian teenager who was later returned to his family, the military said in a statement.

Settler groups with links to Homesh declined to comment or said they were unaware of the incident.

Zubeidi said he and some friends took some snacks up to the hilltop where the settlement once stood and found a place to relax. At around 9:30 a.m. they heard people shouting in Hebrew and looked up to see a small group of settlers coming toward them.

He denied he or his friends threw rocks, saying “I don’t know anything about that.”

Instead, he said, they fearfully ran down the hill toward their village of Silat Al-Dhahr. Zubeidi said an earlier knee injury slowed him down, allowing another group of settlers in a car to catch up with him and knock him over as he descended the gravely street that connects Homesh with the main road.

“Four settlers got out of the car and there were two others who were traveling by foot,” he said. “One of them had a gun.”

The settlers beat him with wooden clubs before blindfolding him and tying him to the hood of the car, he said. They drove for about five minutes, back up the hill, before the car came to a sudden halt, sending him tumbling to the ground. “Then they started to hit me, spit on me and swear at me,” he said.

He said the settlers tied him to a tree and whipped him with a belt. Then they took him down, cut his legs with a knife and burned the soles of his feet with a car cigarette lighter. In the end, they hit him over the head with a club, knocking him unconscious, he said.

When he came to, he was in an army jeep with an Israeli soldier who he says immediately began threatening him. “He told me that if anything happens in the settlement we will arrest you, and if there is any stone-throwing, you will take full responsibility,” Zubeidi said.

His father, Abdul Razek Zubeidi, said his son was taken to a hospital that afternoon and spent the night there. A medical report said he had bruising on his shoulder and cuts on his feet. Photos taken shortly after the incident appear to show two dark wounds on the soles of his feet.

Abdul Razek Zubeidi said he immediately reported the incident to the Palestinian police, who said they contacted the Israeli army. Abdul Razek said he has heard nothing from Israeli authorities. The family says it has not filed a complaint to Israeli police, fearing it would be a waste of time.

Palestinians in the West Bank live under Israeli military law, giving them few avenues for legal recourse, while the nearly 500,000 Jewish settlers in the territory have full Israeli citizenship.

Homesh was one of four settlements in the West Bank that were evacuated as part of Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005. But settlers from another nearby settlement still go the hilltop to study and pray, according to Israeli media.

In addition to the more than 130 settlements authorized by Israel, there are dozens of unauthorized settlement outposts. Israel is reluctant to evacuate them because doing so risks igniting clashes between settlers and soldiers.

The Palestinians and most of the international community view all settlements as a violation of international law, as well as an obstacle to peace, because they threaten the territorial contiguity and viability of any future Palestinian state.

The UN envoy to the Middle East, Tor Wennesland, raised Tareq’s case at a meeting of the Security Council last month, describing the incident as a “heinous act” and calling on Israeli authorities to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Tareq’s mother, Hanan Zubeidi, fears it could have been much worse.

“Imagine, my son tells me that he was beaten up by them,” she said. “I did not expect to see him alive.”


Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’

Updated 58 min 24 sec ago
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Palestinians struggling to survive as Israel plans for Gaza's ‘conquest’

  • For many of the Gaza Strip's residents, the most immediate threat to their lives remains the spectre of famine amid a months-long Israeli blockade
  • Israel’s new military roadmap changes little as it already controls most of Gaza, a resident says

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s plan for the “conquest” of Gaza has sparked renewed fears, but for many of the Palestinian territory’s residents, the most immediate threat to their lives remains the spectre of famine amid a months-long Israeli blockade.
The plan to expand military operations, approved by Israel’s security cabinet overnight, includes holding territories in the besieged Gaza Strip and moving the population south “for their protection,” an Israeli official said.
But Gaza residents told AFP that they did not expect the new offensive would make any significant changes to the already dire humanitarian situation in the small coastal territory.
“Israel has not stopped the war, the killing, the bombing, the destruction, the siege, and the starvation — every day — so how can they talk about expanding military operations?” Awni Awad, 39, told AFP.

Awad, who lives in a tent in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis after being displaced by Israeli evacuation orders, said that his situation was already “catastrophic and tragic.”
“I call on the world to witness the famine that grows and spreads every day,” he said.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) in late April said it had depleted all its foods stocks in Gaza due to Israel’s blockade on all supplies since March 2.

There is no food, no medicine, and no nutritional supplements. The markets are empty of food, and the government clinics and pharmacies have nothing

Umm Hashem Al-Saqqa, Gaza City resident

Aya Al-Skafy, a resident of Gaza City, told AFP her baby died because of malnutrition and medicine shortages last week.
“She was four months old and weighed 2.8 kilograms (6.2 pounds), which is very little. Medicine was not available,” she said.
“Due to severe malnutrition, she suffered from blood acidity, liver and kidney failure, and many other complications. Her hair and nails also fell out due to malnutrition.”
Umm Hashem Al-Saqqa, another Gaza City resident, fears her five-year-old son might face a similar fate, but is powerless to do anything about it.
“Hashem suffers from iron deficiency anaemia. He is constantly pale and lacks balance, and is unable to walk due to malnutrition,” she told AFP.
“There is no food, no medicine, and no nutritional supplements. The markets are empty of food, and the government clinics and pharmacies have nothing.”
New military roadmap
Gaza City resident Mohammed Al-Shawa, 65, said that Israel’s new military roadmap changes little as it already controls most of Gaza.
“The Israeli announcement about expanding military operations in Gaza is just talk for the media, because the entire Gaza Strip is occupied, and there is no safe area in Gaza,” he said.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that 69 percent of Gaza has now been either incorporated into one of Israel’s buffer zones, or is subject to evacuation orders.

The reality is that Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza by bombing, shooting, or through starvation and denial of medical treatment

Mohammed Al-Shawa, Gaza City resident

That number rises to 100 percent in the southern governorate of Rafah, where over 230,000 people lived before the war but which has now been entirely declared a no-go zone.
“There is no food, no medicine, and the announcement of an aid distribution plan is just to distract the world and mislead global public opinion,” Shawa said, referring to reports of a new Israeli plan for humanitarian aid delivery that has yet to be implemented.
“The reality is that Israel is killing Palestinians in Gaza by bombing, shooting, or through starvation and denial of medical treatment,” he said.
Israel says that its renewed bombardments and the blockade of Gaza are aimed at forcing Hamas to release hostages held in the territory.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich praised the new plan for Gaza on Monday and evoked a proposal previously floated by US President Donald Trump to displace the territory’s residents elsewhere.
The far-right firebrand said he would push for the plan’s completion, until “Hamas is defeated, Gaza is fully occupied, and Trump’s historical plan is implemented, with Gaza refugees resettled in other countries.”


Norwegian NGO decries Israel plan to take over Gaza aid

Palestinians queue for a portion of hot food distributed by a charity kitchen at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza Strip
Updated 05 May 2025
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Norwegian NGO decries Israel plan to take over Gaza aid

  • Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south”

OSLO: An Israeli plan to take over the distribution of humanitarian aid to Gaza at hubs controlled by the military is “fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) told AFP on Monday.
Israel’s security cabinet said there was “currently enough food” in the territory which has been under full Israeli blockade since March 2, and approved overnight the “possibility of humanitarian distribution” in Gaza.
“We cannot and will not do something which is fundamentally against humanitarian principles,” Jan Egeland told AFP.
He said “the United Nations agencies, all other international humanitarian groups and NGOs have said no to be part of this idea coming from the Israeli cabinet and from the Israeli military.”
Israel has accused Hamas of diverting humanitarian aid — which Hamas denies — and said its blockade was necessary to pressure the militant group to release Israeli hostages.
Egeland said the Israeli government wanted to “militarise, manipulate, politicize the aid by allowing only aid to a few concentration hubs in the south, a scheme where people will be screened, where it’s a completely inoperable system.”
“That would force people to move to get aid, and it would continue the starvation of the civilian population,” he said, adding: “We will have no part in that.”
“If one side in a bitter armed conflict tries to control, manipulate, ration aid among the civilians on the other side, it is against everything we stand for,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said the Israeli scheme “will mean large parts of Gaza, including the less mobile and most vulnerable people, will continue to go without supplies.”
International aid organizations as well as Palestinians in Gaza have for weeks warned of a dire humanitarian situation on the ground.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said it has depleted its food stocks and that the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel.


Iraq’s justice minister says prisons are at double capacity as amnesty law takes effect

Iraqi Justice Minister Khaled Shwani speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, May 3.
Updated 05 May 2025
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Iraq’s justice minister says prisons are at double capacity as amnesty law takes effect

  • Justice Minister Khaled Shwani acknowledged the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards

BAGHDAD: As a general amnesty law takes effect in Iraq, the country’s prisons are facing a crisis of overcrowding, housing more than double their intended capacity, the country’s justice minister said in an interview.
Justice Minister Khaled Shwani told The Associated Press on Saturday that Iraq’s 31 prisons currently hold approximately 65,000 inmates, despite the system being built to accommodate only half that number.
He acknowledged that the overcrowding has put a severe strain on prison health care and human rights standards.
“When we took office, overcrowding stood at 300 percent,” he said. “After two years of reform, we’ve reduced it to 200 percent. Our goal is to bring that down to 100 percent by next year in line with international standards.”
Thousands more detainees remain in the custody of security agencies but have not yet been transferred to the Ministry of Justice due to lack of prison capacity. Four new prisons are under construction, Shwani said, while three have been closed in recent years. Two others have been opened and six existing prisons expanded.
The general amnesty law passed in January had strong support from Sunni lawmakers who argue that their community has been disproportionately targeted by terrorism charges, with confessions sometimes extracted under torture.
But opponents say the law would allow the release of people involved in public corruption and embezzlement as well as militants who committed war crimes.
The Iraqi Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group, said in a statement that “the current version of the general amnesty law raises deep concerns over its potential legal and security consequences.”’
Shwani said 2,118 prisoners have been released from the justice ministry’s prisons since the amnesty law took effect, while others had been released from the custody of security agencies before being transferred to the Ministry of Justice.
“We have a committee studying the status of inmates and identifying those who may qualify for release, but the vision is not yet final,” he said. The minister said he expects a “good number” to be released but “cannot specify an exact percentage until we receive clarity from the judiciary on who qualifies for the amnesty.”
Iraq’s prisons house hundreds of foreign nationals, most of them convicted of terrorism-related charges or affiliation with the Al-Qaeda and Daesh.
The inmates hail from countries including Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkiye, Egypt, North African nations, and several European states, as well as a handful of US citizens. Shwani said discussions are underway with several governments to repatriate their citizens, excluding those sentenced to death.
He said inmates have been repatriated under existing agreements with Iran, Turkiye, and the United Kingdom, including 127 Iranian inmates who were recently transferred back to Tehran.
An Iranian who was convicted in the 2022 killing of a US citizen in Baghdad remains in custody, however, Shwani said.
Stephen Edward Troell, 45, a native of Tennessee, was fatally shot in his car in November by assailants as he pulled up to the street where he lived in Baghdad’s central Karrada district with his family. Iranian citizen Mohammed Ali Ridha was convicted in the killing, along with four Iraqis, in what was described as a kidnapping gone wrong.
All executions have been halted following the issuance of the general amnesty law, Shwani said.
Iraq has faced criticism from human rights groups over its application of the death penalty and particularly over mass executions carried out without prior notice to lawyers or family members of the prisoners.
Shwani pushed back against the criticisms of prison conditions and of the executions.
“There are strict measures in place for any violations committed against inmates,” he said. “Many employees have been referred for investigation, dismissed, and prosecuted.”
He insisted that the “number of executions carried out is limited — not as high as reported in the media” and said the death penalty is only applied in “crimes that severely threaten national security and public safety,” including inmates convicted in a 2016 bombing attack in Baghdad’s Karrada district that killed hundreds of people, as well as cases of child rape and high-ranking Daesh leaders.
Executions have been paused to reassess cases under the new amnesty law, he said.


Israeli authorities destroy Palestinian homes in West Bank cities

Updated 05 May 2025
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Israeli authorities destroy Palestinian homes in West Bank cities

  • Israeli authorities demolish 25 structures that belonged to the Dababseh family in Khallet Al-Dabaa village
  • In Ramallah, forces raze a 150 sq. meter home that housed five people

LONDON: Israeli authorities demolished several Palestinian structures, including homes, in occupied West Bank cities on Monday.

Israeli forces demolished two homes in Al-Mughayyir village, north of Ramallah. They also destroyed a 200 sq. meter home in Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya, for building without a permit. Additionally, several structures were demolished in the Jordan Valley.

Wafa reported that Israeli authorities demolished 25 structures that belonged to the Dababseh family in Khallet Al-Dabaa village, including homes, water wells, naturally formed caves, agricultural rooms, barns, and solar panels, after forcibly evicting residents.

In Ramallah, forces demolished a 150 sq. meter home that housed five people, while a demolition notice was issued for another house.

In the northern Jordan Valley, Israeli forces destroyed homes and livestock pens belonging to residents in Khirbet Al-Deir, while in Nabi Elias village, it raided several vehicle repair garages, the Wafa news agency reported.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, associated with the Palestinian Authority, reported that Israeli forces or settlers carried out 1,693 attacks on Palestinian towns, their properties, and lands in April.


Woman killed as gunmen attack Damascus nightclub: monitor, witness

People walk past the closed entrance of Al-Karawan nightclub on Damascus’ Saadallah Al-Jabri street on May 5, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 05 May 2025
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Woman killed as gunmen attack Damascus nightclub: monitor, witness

  • A witness, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said he “heard gunfire at dawn” as he was near the nightclub
  • “I saw a woman’s body, blood stains on the ground, and chaos after the shooting,” he said

DAMASCUS: Armed men opened fire inside a club in Damascus on Monday, killing a woman, according to a witness and a war monitor, the second attack in a week targeting the Syrian capital’s nightlife.
The perpetrators or their motives were unknown. Some Syrians have expressed fears that the country’s new authorities would seek to impose restrictions on public behavior but it was unclear whether the attackers were linked to them.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, reported that “unidentified gunmen attacked the Al-Karawan nightclub in the Hijaz area with automatic weapons and opened fire, killing a woman and wounding others.”
A witness, requesting anonymity for security reasons, said he “heard gunfire at dawn” as he was near the nightclub.
He told AFP that he “did not dare to enter the club until some time after the firing stopped.”
Inside the club, “I saw a woman’s body, blood stains on the ground, and chaos after the shooting,” he said.
Contacted by AFP, the interior ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the deadly attack.
The club is located in a commercial area in the heart of Damascus, where many licensed nightclubs and bars have been operating for decades.
A resident of the same street said security forces had been monitoring the venue from a vehicle for days.
A local vendor said “there has never been any problem with the nightclub” in the five years he has worked in the area.
Hours before the shooting, a video circulated on social media showing security camera footage from a previous attack on a nightclub in the same area.
The footage, verified by AFP, shows gunmen entering the venue before beating fleeing men and women with their weapons.
Authorities said on Sunday that the gunmen involved in the first incident had been arrested.
“After initial investigations and reviewing the recordings, the individuals involved in the assault were identified, arrested and transferred to the judiciary,” the interior ministry said in a statement carried by Alekhbariah television.
“Any transgression or assault affecting citizens or public facilities will be met with strict legal measures,” it added.
Since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in December, the intentional community has been pressing Syria’s new rulers to respect personal freedoms, protect minorities and include all components of society in the transitional period.