Israeli forces strap Palestinian to jeep bonnet and drive off during raid
Israel says the incident was in violation of military protocol Source link
Israel says the incident was in violation of military protocol Source link
Lord Cameron called on Israeli authorities to clamp down on alleged human rights abuses by settlers in the West Bank. Source link
(RNS) — It is easy to despair over the Holy Land. For almost 80 years it has been a festering sore, and today, after decades of peace efforts, there is no end in sight. After the genocide inflicted on Jews by the Nazis during World War II, Jews wanted a homeland where they could be self-governing and safe. Returning to Israel, their original homeland until the destruction of the Jewish state by the Roman Empire, was a longed-for hope. For a variety of reasons (guilt, sympathy, geopolitical gamesmanship and even antisemitism), the West supported a Jewish homeland. Worries about the Palestinians currently living in what had been ancient Israel were put aside. From a nation of refugees surrounded by enemies, Israel has grown into an economic and military powerhouse. A democratic ally to the United States, it has come to be seen as a bulwark against Iran. But the Palestinian question remains. Many were pushed as refugees into Jordan. Others live under dire circumstances in the West Bank and Gaza. Angry at the loss of …
“SECOND GAZA” Soon after the war began, when Hamas militants from Gaza attacked southern Israel on Oct 7, Israel told Palestinians in northern Gaza to move to “safe zones” further south such as Rafah. Around 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people are now estimated to be sheltering in the city. However, Israel has for two months threatened to invade the city in its mission to destroy Hamas. The G7 group of developed economies said on Friday that it opposed a “full-scale military operation” there, fearing “catastrophic consequences” for Rafah’s civilians. Violence has also flared in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a two-year surge in clashes has further escalated since the war broke out. The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday that at least 14 people were killed during an Israeli raid on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The Israeli army said it killed 10 militants during the operation at Nur Shams camp, which started on Thursday. A camp resident who declined to give his name said the West Bank had become …
(RNS) — On Friday, the U.S. State Department announced it would impose sanctions on Ben Zion Gopstein, the leader of Lehava, an extremist group in the West Bank that advocates for preserving Jewish ethnicity in Israel. “Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas,” the State Department said in a statement on Friday. Also sanctioned were two fundraising groups, Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich, which had attempted to raise funds for two other settler leaders who were sanctioned earlier this year. Sanctions against anyone who undermined peace and security in the West Bank were legalized by a February executive order by President Joe Biden. The new sanctions come as violence increased in the West Bank in recent days, as Jewish settlers attacked several Palestinian towns in retribution for the kidnapping and murder of a Jewish teenager on April 13. At least eight Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in the unrest. Gopstein and Lehava had been accused of …
SOUTH LEBANON BLAST Three United Nations observers and a translator were also wounded on Saturday when a shell exploded near them as they were carrying out a foot patrol in south Lebanon, the United Nations peacekeeping mission said, adding it was still investigating the origin of the blast. The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL, as well as unarmed technical observers known as UNTSO, are stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line between Lebanon and Israel, known as the Blue Line. Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has been trading fire with the Israeli military across the Blue Line since October in parallel with the war in Gaza. UNIFIL said in a statement on Saturday that the targeting of peacekeepers is “unacceptable” and that the wounded staff had been evacuated for treatment. Two security sources had earlier told Reuters the observers were wounded in an Israeli strike outside the border town of Rmeish. The Israeli military denied involvement in the incident. “Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a UNIFIL vehicle …
(RNS) — Palestinian Christians, a community that dates back to Jesus’ time, have long lived under the threat of extinction. This Easter, however, we bear witness to horrors never imagined. The church in the Holy Land, along with thousands of years of Palestinian culture and heritage, is disintegrating before our eyes. From Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Nablus, we watch the escalating attacks on our community in horror. A pastor in Bethlehem and founder of Dar al-Kalima University, the first and only Palestinian university with a focus on arts, culture and design, I have invested my life in my community, which has played an outsize role both in Palestinian culture and on the global stage. Palestinian Christians founded 40% of the aid organizations and other NGOs in the occupied territories. Our schools, hospitals and advocacy organizations serve all Palestinians and represent our third-largest private employer. Church-related organizations run a third of the health services in the West Bank and Gaza. Yet, like all Palestinians, we have suffered the indignity of Israeli occupation and the crime of …
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Christians participated in a customary Good Friday procession through the limestone walls of Jerusalem’s Old City, commemorating one of the faith’s most sacred days with noticeably thinner crowds amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. The day’s processions, which normally draw thousands of foreign visitors, were unusually local. Most observers were Palestinian Christians, joined by some foreigners living in Jerusalem and a few undeterred tourists. The traditional Good Friday procession passes along the Way of the Cross, or Via Dolorosa, the route believed to have been walked by Jesus to his crucifixion. Squads of Israeli police set up barricades along the path, rerouting shoppers in the Old City’s bustling Muslim quarter to make way for hundreds of pilgrims. A young group of Palestinian Arab scouts led the day’s procession, past the 14 stations along the route, each marking an event that befell Jesus on his final journey. Hundreds of Palestinian Christians walked in their wake. Behind them was a small parade of the Franciscan religious order, composed mainly of foreigners who live …
Issued on: 29/03/2024 – 09:19Modified: 29/03/2024 – 22:13 02:35 Palestinian land planner Safa Odeh points in the direction of a road in the West Bank that she says only Israeli settlers can use. © France 24 screengrab Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced a plan to seize 800 hectares of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, the largest land seizure since the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israeli and Palestinian authorities according to NGO Peace Now. FRANCE 24’s Catherine Norris Trent and Claire Duhamel explored the roads around Jerusalem, some of which are included in the planned seizure, and spoke with a Palestinian land planning engineer who said Smotrich’s plan is aimed at “increasing control” in the territory. Read more on related topics: Source link
Israeli forces are killing thousands of innocent civilians and badly damaging their country’s standing with its most important partners, including the United States. Israel has also no doubt severely degraded Hamas’s military capabilities, but the question needs to be asked: Is the country’s furious response to the Hamas invasion of October 7 making Israel any safer? At best, it’s still too soon to say—but on balance, what I see worries me. It sometimes takes years to fully appreciate the strategic significance of a conflict. Great victories look more ambiguous in hindsight, and catastrophic defeats sometimes have silver linings. That seems especially true for Israel. In 2006, Israel fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah that most observers at the time classed as a decisive victory for the Iranian-sponsored Lebanese militant group. Eighteen years later, that conflict looks instead like the moment when Israel reestablished a measure of cross-border deterrence that it had lost when it withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. The Israeli ground onslaught in 2006 may have been disjointed and underwhelming, but the aerial …