Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements

Update Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements
Security forces vehicles operate during an Israeli raid in Jenin, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. (Reuters)
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Updated 31 August 2024
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Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements

Israeli troops, Palestinian militants clash in West Bank after incidents near settlements
  • At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army since Wednesday
  • Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s October 7 attack

JENIN:Clashes broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday as Israel pushed ahead with a military operation in the flashpoint city of Jenin.

Israeli troops searched areas around Jewish settlements after two separate security incidents on Friday evening. In Jenin itself, drones and helicopters circled overhead while the sound of sporadic firing could be heard in the city.

Hundreds of Israeli troops have been carrying out raids since Wednesday in one of their largest actions in the West Bank in months.

The operation, which Israel says was mounted to block Iranian-backed militant groups from attacking its citizens, has drawn international calls for a halt.

At least 19 Palestinians, including armed fighters and civilians, have now been killed since it began. The Israeli military said on Saturday a soldier had been killed during the fighting in the West Bank.

The Israeli forces were battling Palestinian fighters from armed factions that have long had a strong presence in Jenin and the adjoining refugee camp, a densely populated township housing families driven from their homes in the 1948 Middle East war around the creation of Israel.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday a child had been taken to hospital in Jenin with a bullet wound to the head.

The escalation in hostilities in the West Bank takes place as fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants still rages in the coastal Gaza Strip nearly 11 months since it began, and hostilities with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah movement in the Israel-Lebanon border area have intensified.

Late on Friday, Israeli forces said two men were killed in separate incidents near Gush Etzion, a large West Bank settlement cluster located south of Jerusalem, that the military assessed were both attempted attacks on Israelis.

In the first, a car exploded at a petrol station in what the army said was an attempted car bombing attack. The military said a man was shot dead after he got out of the car and tried to attack soldiers.

In the second incident, a man was killed after the military said a car attempted to ram a security guard and infiltrate the Karmei Tzur settlement. The car was chased by security forces and crashed and an explosive device in it was detonated, the military said in a statement.

The two deaths were confirmed by Palestinian health authorities but they gave no details on how they died.

Troops combed the area following the two incidents. Security forces also carried out raids in the city of Hebron, where the two men came from.

Hamas praised what it called a “double heroic operation” in the West Bank. It said in a statement it was “a clear message that resistance will remain striking, prolonged and sustained as long as the brutal occupation’s aggression and targeting of our people and land continue.”

The group, however, did not claim direct responsibility for the attacks.

Israeli army chief General Herzi Halevi said on Saturday Israel would step up defensive measures as well as offensive actions like the Jenin operation.

Amid the gunfire, armored bulldozers searching for roadside bombs have plowed up large stretches of paved roads and water pipes have been damaged, leading to flooding in some areas.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel last October that triggered the Gaza war, at least 660 Palestinian combatants and civilians have been killed in the West Bank, according to Palestinian tallies, some by Israeli troops and some by Jewish settlers who have carried out frequent attacks on Palestinian communities.

Israel says Iran provides weapons and support to militant factions in the West Bank — under Israeli occupation since the 1967 Middle East war — and the military has as a result cranked up its operations there.


Witkoff and Trump discussed plans for US to increase role in aid to Gaza, Axios reports

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Witkoff and Trump discussed plans for US to increase role in aid to Gaza, Axios reports

Witkoff and Trump discussed plans for US to increase role in aid to Gaza, Axios reports
The Trump administration will “take over” management of the humanitarian effort in Gaza

WASHINGTON: US special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump discussed plans for Washington to significantly increase its role in providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing two US officials and an Israeli official.

The report said the discussions took place in a meeting between Witkoff and Trump on Monday at the White House, adding Israel supported the increased US role.

Axios cited a US official as saying the Trump administration will “take over” management of the humanitarian effort in Gaza because Israel is not handling it adequately.

Egypt’s El-Sisi says Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘systematic genocide’

Egypt’s El-Sisi says Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘systematic genocide’
Updated 56 min 54 sec ago
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Egypt’s El-Sisi says Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘systematic genocide’

Egypt’s El-Sisi says Israel’s war in Gaza a ‘systematic genocide’
  • Abdel Fattah El-Sisi: ‘There is systematic genocide to eradicate the Palestinian cause’
  • El-Sisi reiterated that the Rafah border crossing with Gaza was ‘never closed’

CAIRO: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said Tuesday Israel was pursuing “a war of starvation and genocide” in Gaza, and denied accusations Cairo prevented life-saving aid from entering the Palestinian territory.

“The war in Gaza is no longer merely a war to achieve political goals or release hostages,” El-Sisi told a press conference in Cairo along with his Vietnamese counterpart.

Israel launched its offensive in response to Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, vowing to crush the Palestinian militant group and to free hostages.

To El-Sisi, “this war has long since surpassed any logic or justification, and has become a war of starvation and genocide.”

“There is systematic genocide to eradicate the Palestinian cause,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday Israel must “complete” the defeat of Hamas to free hostages held in Gaza, a day after Israeli media reported the army could occupy the entire territory.

Israel has heavily restricted aid into Gaza which is slipping into a catastrophic famine 22 months into the war.

It has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Following mounting international pressure on Israel, in late May aid has only began trickling into Gaza, which borders Israel and Egypt.

In response to what El-Sisi said were “bankrupt” accusations of Egypt’s complicity in the siege, the president reiterated that the Rafah border crossing with Gaza was “never closed.”

The crossing at Rafah was a vital entry point of aid in the early months of the war, until Israeli troops took over its Palestinian side in May 2024, forcing it shut.

“The crossing was able to bring in aid as long as there were no Israeli troops stationed on the Palestinian side of the crossing,” El-Sisi said, adding that there are 5,000 trucks loaded with aid waiting to enter Gaza.

He also defended what he said was Egypt’s consistently “positive” role seeking an end to the conflict.

Since the war began, Cairo has undertaken a delicate balancing act, retaining its position as a mediator between Israel and Hamas — along with the United States and Qatar — while repeatedly criticizing Israel’s assault.

Cairo has also repeatedly refused US plans to displace Palestinians into Egypt, lobbying for a reconstruction plan for the territory that has fallen by the wayside as truce talks repeatedly folded.

“Egypt will always remain a gateway for aid, not a gateway for the displacement of the Palestinian people,” El-Sisi said on Tuesday.

“We are prepared to allow aid in at any time, but we are not prepared to receive or displace Palestinians from their land.”

Last week, El-Sisi urged US President Donald Trump — who had touted the plan to displace Palestinians into Egypt — to intervene, saying he “is the one capable of ending the war, bringing in aid and ending this suffering.”


Iran names moderate Larijani to head top security body

Iran names moderate Larijani to head top security body
Updated 05 August 2025
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Iran names moderate Larijani to head top security body

Iran names moderate Larijani to head top security body
  • Ali Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in a decree by President Masoud Pezeshkian, IRNA reported
  • The security council is responsible for laying out Iran’s defense and security strategy, but its decisions must be approved by the country’s supreme leader

TEHRAN: Iran has appointed veteran politician Ali Larijani, considered a moderate on foreign policy, to lead the Islamic republic’s top security body, state media said Tuesday.

“Ali Larijani was appointed secretary of the Supreme National Security Council in a decree by President Masoud Pezeshkian,” official news agency IRNA reported.

Larijani, 68, who is seen as a moderate conservative in Iran, replaces Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a Revolutionary Guards general who was named to the position in May 2023.

His appointment comes after a 12-day war in June, launched by Israel and later joined by the United States, during which key Iranian nuclear and military sites were hit.

The security council is responsible for laying out Iran’s defense and security strategy, but its decisions must be approved by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The secretary, as the most senior member of the council, oversees the implementation of its decisions.

A former member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Larijani has held several senior government positions over three decades.

Khamenei made him one of his advisers in May 2020.

The following year, Larijani’s presidential run was blocked by a government vetting body despite him being considered a leading candidate.

Starting in 2005, Larijani had led Iran’s nuclear policy but resigned after two years of negotiations with Western powers, citing “serious differences” with the president at the time, ultra-conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As parliament speaker from 2008 to 2020, Larijani put his weight behind the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

The son of a grand ayatollah, Larijani comes from an influential Shiite Muslim family with ties to the government, and holds a doctorate in philosophy.

Tehran and Washington had been engaged in negotiations aimed at reaching a new nuclear deal earlier this year, but the talks were derailed by the Israel-Iran war.

Israel said its offensive was aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, an ambition Tehran has consistently denied pursuing.


Israeli forces raid Palestinian family’s home in north Jerusalem, accompanied by bulldozers

Israeli forces raid Palestinian family’s home in north Jerusalem, accompanied by bulldozers
Updated 05 August 2025
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Israeli forces raid Palestinian family’s home in north Jerusalem, accompanied by bulldozers

Israeli forces raid Palestinian family’s home in north Jerusalem, accompanied by bulldozers
  • The building targeted in the town of Hizma belongs to family of detainee Ahmed Fayez Subaih Al-Khatib and is designated for demolition
  • Forces arrive hours before family wedding and give occupants an hour to evacuate; use tear gas, causing breathing problems for dozens of women and children

LONDON: Israeli forces on Tuesday raided the home of a Palestinian family in the Bayader area of Hizma, a town north of occupied East Jerusalem.

Tear gas was used against residents, resulting in dozens of cases of difficulty breathing among women and children, the Wafa News agency reported.

The three-story building that was targeted belongs to the family of detainee Ahmed Fayez Subaih Al-Khatib and is designated for demolition. The Israeli forces arrived, accompanied by bulldozers, just hours before son Fayez Sbeih was due to get married, and gave the family an hour to evacuate, Wafa said.

According to local media reports the demolition did not take place, however, as the Subaih family’s lawyer filed a legal appeal, and the Israeli forces withdrew about five hours after they arrived.

Residents of Hizma have faced repeated attacks by Israeli forces targeting Palestinian areas near Jerusalem, Wafa reported. The town is close to an Israeli military checkpoint and the illegal settlement of Pisgat Zeev. It is next to two main roads leading to Jericho in the south and Ramallah in the north.


Hezbollah threatens to resume firing missiles at Israel if it intensifies operations in Lebanon

Hezbollah threatens to resume firing missiles at Israel if it intensifies operations in Lebanon
Updated 05 August 2025
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Hezbollah threatens to resume firing missiles at Israel if it intensifies operations in Lebanon

Hezbollah threatens to resume firing missiles at Israel if it intensifies operations in Lebanon
  • Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament
  • Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon

BEIRUT: The leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah warned Tuesday that if Israel intensifies its military operations against his group, the Iran-backed armed faction will resume firing missiles toward Israel.

Naim Kassem’s comments came as Lebanon’s Cabinet was meeting to discuss Hezbollah’s disarmament. Beirut is under US pressure to disarm the group that recently fought a 14-month war with Israel and was left gravely weakened, with many of its political and military leaders dead.

Since the war ended in November with a US-brokered ceasefire, Hezbollah officials have said the group will not discuss its disarmament until Israel withdraws from five hills it controls inside Lebanon and stops almost daily airstrikes that have killed or wounded hundreds of people, most of them Hezbollah members.

Israel has accused Hezbollah of trying to rebuild its military capabilities. Israel’s military has said the five locations in Lebanon provide vantage points or are located across from communities in northern Israel, where about 60,000 Israelis were displaced during the war.

Since the ceasefire, Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for one attack on a disputed area along the border.

In a televised speech Tuesday, Kassem said Hezbollah rejects any timetable to hand over its weapons.

“Israel’s interest is not to widen the aggression because if they expand, the resistance will defend, the army will defend and the people will defend,” Kassem said. “This defense will lead to the fall of missiles inside Israel.”

Since the war ended, Hezbollah has withdrawn most of its fighters and weapons from the area along the border with Israel south of the Litani river.

Last week, Lebanese President Joseph Aoun reiterated calls for Hezbollah to give up its weapons, angering the group’s leadership.

The ceasefire agreement left vague how Hezbollah’s weapons and military facilities north of the Litani river should be treated, saying Lebanese authorities should dismantle unauthorized facilities starting with the area south of the river.

Hezbollah maintains the deal only covers the area south of the Litani, while Israel and the US say it mandates disarmament of the group throughout Lebanon.

Kassem said Hezbollah rejects a government vote over its weapons, saying such a decision should be unanimously backed by all Lebanese.

“No one can deprive Lebanon of its force to protect its sovereignty,” Kassem said.

Hezbollah’s weapons are a divisive issue among Lebanese, with some groups calling for its disarmament.

The Israel-Hezbollah war started a day after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack against Israel from Gaza. It left more than 4,000 people dead and caused damage worth $11 billion.