Israeli lawmakers demand clearance of Bedouin encampment

Israeli lawmakers demand clearance of Bedouin encampment
Palestinians and activists protest against renewed threats by Israeli politicians to imminently carry out the eviction of the Bedouin hamlet of Khan Al-Ahmar, West Bank, Jan. 23, 2023. (AP Photo)
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Updated 23 January 2023
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Israeli lawmakers demand clearance of Bedouin encampment

Israeli lawmakers demand clearance of Bedouin encampment
  • Khan Al-Ahmar has been at the heart of a battle over land rights in the West Bank for years
  • Knesset deputies stood with a police escort on a hill opposite the hamlet to demand clearance

KHAN AL-AHMAR, West Bank: Two influential Israeli lawmakers demanded the clearance of a Bedouin encampment near Jerusalem on Monday, reigniting a years-long battle over the site and urging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to defy international pressure.
Khan Al-Ahmar has been at the heart of a battle over land rights in the West Bank for years, with international bodies including the European Union urging Israel not to evacuate the site and move its inhabitants out by force.
But the election of a new government which includes nationalist right-wing parties determined to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank has brought new pressure to clear the encampment. The pressure has been particularly strong since the army prevented a small group of Jewish settlers setting up an outpost in the West Bank last week.
“All the necessary permissions are on the table, including the approval of the Supreme Court of Israel, it’s just up to the defense minister and the prime minister to decide,” said Yuli Edelstein, a Knesset deputy and chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee who joined Danny Danon, a member of Netanyahu’s Likud party and former envoy to the United Nations.
“I think the sooner the actions will be taken, the less problems it will create,” he said.
In 2018, after years of legal battles, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the demolition of the site, which was built without construction permits. Palestinians say such permits are virtually impossible for them to obtain.
Successive Israeli governments have held off from enforcing demolition following international calls to refrain from compulsory evacuation of the residents, who say their families have lived in the area since the 1950s.
On Monday, as the deputies stood with a police escort on a hill opposite the hamlet to demand clearance, a group of demonstrators with Palestinian flags gathered in Khan Al-Ahmar to show support.
The standoff follows a prolonged battle over an order to evacuate the West Bank area of Masafer Yatta near Hebron, a group of hamlets where Palestinian shepherds and farmers claim a historic connection to the land.
A scruffy cluster of tin and wooded shacks by the side of a highway out of Jerusalem between the Israeli settlements of Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim, Khan Al-Ahmar is home to around 180 people and includes an EU-funded school.
Palestinians say the aim of the pressure to evacuate the areas is to clear the way for expanded Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the area which would form the core of any future Palestinian state.
“The goal is to empty the land and give it to the settlers,” said Eid Jahalin, head of the Khan Al-Ahmar compound.


Tensions high in south Lebanon in anticipation of Hezbollah’s next move

Tensions high in south Lebanon in anticipation of Hezbollah’s next move
Updated 8 sec ago
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Tensions high in south Lebanon in anticipation of Hezbollah’s next move

Tensions high in south Lebanon in anticipation of Hezbollah’s next move
  • UNIFIL says priority remains preventing escalation, protecting civilian lives, ensuring security of peacekeepers

BEIRUT: Hezbollah’s next move in southern Lebanon remained a key concern on Friday as the Israeli army resumed military operations in Gaza.

Lebanon’s National News Agency said that two people were killed in the town of Hula after their house was targeted by Israel, identifying the victims as Nasifa Mazraani and her son Mohammed.

Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun is set to leave office in 40 days amid fears of new escalations on the southern border with Israel.  

The caretaker Lebanese Cabinet is concerned that it might not be able to reach a solution for the coming vacuum in military leadership.

Defense Minister Maurice Slim explicitly rejected the extension of Aoun’s term as an exception to the rule after his meeting with Patriarch Bechara Al-Rahi on Friday.

The Maronite Patriarchate and various political factions support extending Aoun’s term as a temporary measure until a new president is elected.

Slim is affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement, which rejects the extension of Aoun’s mandate.

He said: “The law does not permit the extension of the army commander’s term after reaching the retirement age.

“The exceptional cases provided for by the law do not apply to the present situation, and it’s impossible to disregard them whatever the reasons.”

Al-Rahi responded, saying that “the region is on fire, and we don’t have a president,” according to remarks cited by the Patriarchate.

Residents of border areas, who returned to their homes last week after the truce took effect, are worried that the situation might deteriorate in south Lebanon.

Many people fled to safer areas on Friday.

According to the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 55,000 people have been displaced from south Lebanon due to tensions there.

About 52 percent of the displaced are females.

According to local statistics, hostilities on the southern front have led to the closure of around 52 private and public schools in border villages, where 6,000 students receive their education.

Moreover, Israel’s use of phosphorus bombs burned around 460 hectares of forests and over 20,000 olive trees.

The Israeli forces announced on Friday afternoon that their defense system intercepted a “suspicious flying object that crossed the border from the direction of Lebanon.”

According to security reports, Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continued to fly in the southern skies, especially over villages and towns closer to the border.

The Israeli army carried out a sweeping operation with medium machine guns around the Israeli Al-Raheb site opposite the Lebanese town of Aita Al-Shaab.

Andrea Tenenti, spokesperson for UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, said the pillars of UN Resolution 1701, adopted 17 years ago to resolve the 2006 war between Israel and Hamas, remained valid.

Tenenti spoke as UNIFIL personnel continued carrying out their routine tasks.

He said that preventing escalation, protecting civilian lives, and ensuring the security of peacekeepers remained a priority.

Tenenti stressed that UNIFIL — led by Maj. Gen. Aroldo Lazaro — was actively working to reduce tension and prevent the risk of broader conflict through talks with both Israel and Lebanon.

The meetings are attended by officers from the Lebanese and Israeli sides under the supervision of the UN, represented by UNIFIL.

Hezbollah opened a second front in southern Lebanon on Oct. 8 in support of the resistance in the Gaza Strip.

The move constitutes a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which prohibits the presence of any armed entity in the area except for the Lebanese army and UNIFIL.

MP Pierre Bou Assi from the Lebanese Forces said that Resolution 1701 was issued after all parties, including Hezbollah, approved it.

He stated that its implementation should be natural and intuitive and that adherence to it is necessary to prevent war in Lebanon.

 


Hamas says offered to hand over remains of hostage baby, family

Hamas says offered to hand over remains of hostage baby, family
Updated 01 December 2023
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Hamas says offered to hand over remains of hostage baby, family

Hamas says offered to hand over remains of hostage baby, family
  • “Throughout the night, indirect negotiations unfolded to extend the truce,” the Palestinian militant group said
  • “Hamas also offered to transfer the Bibas family’s bodies and release their father for their burial, along with two Zionist detainees”

JERUSALEM: Hamas on Friday said it had offered to hand over the bodies of a mother and her two sons — one of them a baby — in talks to extend a now-expired truce.
Shiri Bibas, her 10-month-old son Kfir and his four-year-old brother Ariel, along with their father Yarden, have become emblematic of the October 7 attacks due to the age of baby Kfir.
Earlier this week, Hamas’s armed wing announced that Shiri, Kfir and Ariel had been killed in an Israeli bombing before the now-lapsed truce went into effect — a claim Israel’s military has said it is investigating, but has yet to confirm.
Combat between Israel and Hamas resumed in the Gaza Strip Friday morning after an agreement could not be reached on prolonging the seven-day pause in fighting.
Under the terms of the temporary truce, Hamas had returned scores of Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of more than 200 Palestinian prisoners.
“Throughout the night, indirect negotiations unfolded to extend the truce,” the Palestinian militant group said in a statement Friday.
“Hamas also offered to transfer the Bibas family’s bodies and release their father for their burial, along with two Zionist detainees,” it added.
Israeli authorities “remained unresponsive,” it said.
The Israeli prime minister’s office meanwhile told AFP “Israel will not address propaganda-based reports coming from Hamas.”
As of Thursday, reports of the deaths of the three Bibas family members remained unconfirmed, according to army spokesman Daniel Hagari.
The army has previously said “Hamas is wholly responsible for the security of all hostages.”
Government spokesman Eylon Levy on Friday blamed Hamas for the collapse of the truce, accusing it of “having failed to provide a list of more hostages for release.”
He said Hamas was still holding 137 hostages taken on October 7, including the Bibas family.
The family were among the roughly 240 hostages dragged back to Gaza after militants streamed into Israel in an attack that left 1,200 people dead, most of them civilians, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s ensuing war against the group has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run government in Gaza.


UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce
Updated 01 December 2023
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UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

UN chief ‘deeply regrets’ collapse of Gaza truce

GENEVA: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he regretted that military operations had resumed in Gaza after the collapse of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas.
“I deeply regret that military operations have started again in Gaza,” Guterres wrote on the X social media platform.
“The return to hostilities only shows how important it is to have a true humanitarian cease-fire.”


Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation

Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation
Updated 01 December 2023
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Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation

Israel resumes combat as truce expires, accuses Hamas of violation
  • Seven-day pause began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice
  • Qatar, Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend truce

GAZA/TEL AVIV: Israel’s military said it had resumed combat against Hamas in Gaza on Friday after accusing the Palestinian militant group of violating a seven-day temporary truce by firing toward Israeli territory.
The seven-day pause, which began on Nov. 24 and was extended twice, had allowed for the exchange of dozens of hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and facilitated the entry of humanitarian aid into the shattered coastal strip.
In the hour before the truce was set to end at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), Israel said it intercepted a rocket fired from Gaza.
Further sirens warning of rockets sounded again in Israeli areas near Gaza just minutes before the deadline, the Israeli military said.
Palestinian media reported Israeli air and artillery strikes across the enclave after the truce expired.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas or claim of responsibility for the launches.
Qatar and Egypt have been making intensive efforts to extend the truce following the exchange on Thursday of the latest batch of eight hostages and 30 Palestinian prisoners.
Israel had previously set the release of 10 hostages a day as the minimum it would accept to pause its ground assault and bombardment.
“We’re ready for all possibilities.... Without that, we’re going back to the combat,” Mark Regev, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said on CNN ahead of the expiry of the truce.
Israel has sworn to annihilate Hamas, which rules Gaza, in response to the Oct. 7 rampage by the militant group, when Israel says gunmen killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostages.
Israel retaliated with intense bombardment and a ground invasion. Palestinian health authorities deemed reliable by the United Nations say more than 15,000 Gazans have been confirmed killed.

These children are pictured in the courtyard of a government school in Gaza’s Rafa. The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting. (AFP)

Hostages head home
Thursday’s releases brought the totals freed during the truce to 105 hostages and 240 Palestinian prisoners.
Among those released were six women aged 21 to 40 including one Mexican-Israeli dual national and 21-year-old Mia Schem, who holds both French and Israeli citizenship.
Photos released by the Israeli prime minister’s office showed Schem, who was captured by Hamas along with others at an outdoor music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7, embracing her mother and brother after they were reunited at Hatzerim military base in Israel.
The other two newly released hostages were a brother and sister, Belal and Aisha Al-Ziadna, aged 18 and 17 respectively, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office. They are Bedouin Arab citizens of Israel and among four members of their family taken hostage while they were milking cows on a farm.
One of Qatar’s lead negotiators, career diplomat Abdullah Al Sulaiti, who helped broker the truce through marathon shuttle negotiations, acknowledged in a recent Reuters interview the uncertain odds of keeping the guns silent.
“At the beginning I thought achieving an agreement would be the most difficult step,” he said in an article that detailed the behind-the-scenes efforts for the first time. “I’ve discovered that sustaining the agreement itself is equally challenging.”
 

The warring sides had agreed a further extension to the pause in fighting, but soon after that ended Israeli troops resumed their attacks. (FILE/AFP)

Israel agrees to protect civilians Blinken says
The truce had allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza after much of the coastal territory of 2.3 million people was reduced to wasteland in the Israeli assault.
More fuel and 56 trucks of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza on Thursday, Israel’s defense ministry and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.
But deliveries of food, water, medical supplies and fuel remain far below what is needed, aid workers say.
At an emergency meeting in Amman, Jordan’s King Abdullah on Thursday urged UN officials and international groups to pressure Israel to allow more aid into the beleaguered enclave, according to delegates.
When the cease-fire first came into effect a week ago, Israel was preparing to turn the focus of its operation to southern Gaza after its seven-week assault to the north.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in Israel during his third visit to the Middle East since the war began, said he told Netanyahu that Israel cannot repeat in south Gaza the massive civilian casualties and displacement of residents it inflicted in the north.
“We discussed the details of Israel’s ongoing planning and I underscored the imperative for the United States that the massive loss of civilian life and displacement of the scale that we saw in northern Gaza not be repeated in the south,” Blinken told reporters in Tel Aviv.
“And the Israeli Government agreed with that approach,” he said. This would include concrete measures to avoid damaging critical infrastructure such as hospitals and water facilities and clearly designating safe zones, he said.


Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack — NYT

Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack — NYT
Updated 01 December 2023
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Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack — NYT

Israel dismissed advance warning of Hamas attack — NYT
  • The warnings did not suggest that Hamas was likely to carry out the plan imminently
  • A military assessment last year determined it was too soon to say the plan had been approved by Hamas

NEW YORK: Israeli officials had intelligence that Palestinian militant group Hamas was preparing a wide-ranging attack before its October 7 assault but dismissed the reports, The New York Times reported Thursday.
The newspaper said a document obtained by Israeli authorities “outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people.”
The document, which was reviewed by the newspaper, did not specify when the attack might happen, but provided a blueprint that Hamas appears to have followed: an initial rocket barrage, efforts to knock out surveillance, and waves of gunmen crossing into Israel by land and air.
The Times said the document, which included sensitive security information about Israeli military capacity and locations, circulated widely among the country’s military and intelligence leaders, though it was not clear if it was reviewed by senior politicians.
But a military assessment last year determined it was too soon to say the plan had been approved by Hamas, and when an analyst with the country’s signals intelligence warned the group had carried out a training exercise in line with the plan, she was dismissed.
She warned it was a “plan designed to start a war,” the newspaper said, but a colonel reviewing her assessment suggested: “let’s wait patiently.”
The warnings did not suggest that Hamas was likely to carry out the plan imminently, and the intelligence community continued to believe that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was not pursuing war with Israel, the Times said, likening the intelligence failure to those in the United States before the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The Hamas attack killed 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw around 240 people taken hostage, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s retaliatory ground and air offensive in Gaza has killed more than 15,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to Hamas authorities.