Israel: Doctors Without Borders nurse shot at troops on Gaza border

Israel: Doctors Without Borders nurse shot at troops on Gaza border
Doctors Without Borders has around 200 local and foreign staff in Gaza. (AFP)
Updated 24 August 2018

Israel: Doctors Without Borders nurse shot at troops on Gaza border

Israel: Doctors Without Borders nurse shot at troops on Gaza border
  • COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, issued a statement late Thursday slamming MSF as ‘Terrorism Without Borders’

JERUSALEM: Israel said an MSF nurse shot at troops on the Gaza border this week, a charge the medical charity said Friday it was investigating as it confirmed the death of an employee.
“Doctors Without Borders (MSF) confirms that one of its employees, Hani Mohammed Almajdalawi, was killed in Gaza on Monday, August 20, 2018,” the organization said in a statement.
“MSF is working to verify and understand the circumstances regarding this extremely serious incident, and is not able to comment further at this stage,” it added.
COGAT, the Israeli defense ministry body responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, issued a statement late Thursday slamming MSF as “Terrorism Without Borders.”
“Hani Al-Almajdalawi, who tried to infiltrate through the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip while he was armed with a rifle, opened fire toward military forces and even threw an explosive device at them,” it said.
COGAT said Almajdalawi was “a nurse who worked for the international organization Doctors Without Borders.”
MSF has around 200 local and foreign staff in Gaza and in May the charity condemned Israel’s use of force in border protests as “unacceptable and inhuman.”
It described the army’s policy as “shooting with live ammunition at demonstrators, on the assumption that anyone approaching the separation fence is a legitimate target.”
At least 172 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire on the Gaza border in mass protests which began on March 30.
One Israeli soldier was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper in July.
Israel maintains that its use of force is necessary to defend the border and stop infiltrations and attacks.
Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to requests on Friday to confirm Almajdalawi’s death and detail where his body was being held.
The Israeli military on Monday released a terse statement on a border gunfight which did not name Almajdalawi or confirm that he has been killed.
“A terrorist shot at IDF troops in the northern Gaza Strip, in response IDF troops shot toward the terrorist,” the army said, referring to the Israel Defense Forces.
It said that no soldiers were wounded but made no mention of any Palestinian casualties.
The border incident occurred despite attempts by Egypt and UN officials to reach a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip.


’Foreign maneuvers’ in West Sahara destablizing Algeria: PM

Updated 2 min 25 sec ago

’Foreign maneuvers’ in West Sahara destablizing Algeria: PM

’Foreign maneuvers’ in West Sahara destablizing Algeria: PM
ALGIERS: Algeria’s prime minister on Saturday criticized “foreign maneuvers” he said were aimed to destabilize it, after Washington recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over Western Sahara in exchange for Rabat normalizing ties with Israel.
“There are foreign maneuvers which aim to destabilize Algeria,” Prime Minister Abdelaziz Djerad said, in Algeria’s first reaction to the US decision.
“There is now a desire by the Zionist entity to come closer to our borders,” he added, in reference to Israel.
Algeria, Morocco’s neighbor and regional rival, is the key foreign backer of the Polisario Front, which has campaigned for independence for the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara since the 1970s.
“We are seeing today at our borders... wars and instability around Algeria,” Djerad said, in a speech to mark the anniversary of demonstrations against French colonial rule.
The surprise announcement by outgoing President Donald Trump on Thursday of US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara was swiftly dismissed by the Polisario, who have vowed to fight on until Moroccan forces withdraw.
The Polisario had already announced last month that it regarded a 1991 cease-fire as over, after Morocco sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone to reopen the road to neighboring Mauritania, Morocco’s sole land link to sub-Saharan Africa.
The Polisario has since claimed that repeated exchanges of fire have taken place along the 2,700-kilometer (1,700-mile) sand barrier that separates the two sides.
The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), which Polisario leaders proclaimed in 1976, is a member of the African Union, but controls just 20 percent of the territory, mostly empty desert.
The territory’s main sources of revenue — its phosphate deposits and rich Atlantic fisheries — are all in Moroccan hands.
As a result, the Polisario is heavily dependent on support from Algeria, where it operates rear-bases and runs camps for tens of thousands of Sahrawi refugees.
For the Polisario, Algeria’s support would be essential for any return to major fighting.