9 Palestinians killed during Israeli operation in Jenin refugee camp

Update 9 Palestinians killed during Israeli operation in Jenin refugee camp
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Unarmed Palestinians take shelter from Israeli gunfire and tear-gas canisters during Thursday’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. (AP)
Update Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians during a joint funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP)
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Mourners carry the bodies of Palestinians during a joint funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 27 January 2023

9 Palestinians killed during Israeli operation in Jenin refugee camp

9 Palestinians killed during Israeli operation in Jenin refugee camp
  • An elderly woman was reportedly among the dead and 20 people were wounded, 4 seriously, as Israeli forces searched for 3 militants
  • Meanwhile a 22-year-old man was shot and killed by soldiers in Al-Ram on what was the West Bank’s deadliest day for more than a year

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces killed nine Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and wounded 20, four of them seriously, during a raid in Jenin refugee camp on Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, Youssef Muheisen, 22, died after being shot by Israeli soldiers during clashes in Al-Ram, in Jerusalem governorate, raising the day’s death toll to 10.

The bloodshed, which marked the West Bank’s deadliest day in more than a year, brought to 30 the total number of Palestinians killed this year by Israeli operations.

Security forces said they entered the camp to apprehend three Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad organization who, according to intelligence information, intended to carry out a significant attack against an Israeli target.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli officials initially prevented medics from entering the camp, making it difficult to reach the injured, four of whom were in critical condition. It said Israeli forces had fired tear gas canisters at the Jenin Government Hospital, resulting in inhalation injuries among children.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called on the UN and international human rights organizations to “intervene urgently to provide protection … and stop the bloodshed of children, youth and women.” He added that the occupying forces continue to commit killings and executions with impunity.

Tor Wennesland, the UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said: “I am deeply alarmed and saddened by the continuing cycle of violence in the occupied West Bank. Today’s deaths of nine Palestinians, including militants and one woman, during an Israeli arrest operation in Jenin is another stark example.”

He urged the Israeli and Palestinian authorities to de-escalate tensions, restore calm and avoid further conflict.

A general strike was called in the West Bank to mourn the dead. Large crowds attended the funerals of the nine victims, amid calls for revenge. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced three days of mourning, during which flags will fly at half-mast.

Separately, nine people were injured during clashes that broke out between dozens of Palestinians and Israeli forces near Bethlehem and Ramallah, during which live bullets and tear gas canisters were used to disperse crowds throwing stones.

An EU official in Jerusalem described the situation in the West Bank as complex and heading toward a dangerous curve. The official added that the EU has consistently called for immediate investigations into military operations that result in civilian casualties and for the results of such probes to be publicly announced.

The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said: “If the international community and the US administration do not move now, when these brutal crimes are committed by the occupying forces, then when will they move?”

Maj. Gen. Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, described the Israeli operation at the camp there as “the bloodiest and most violent in more than a year.”

He said great sadness, pain and anger prevails in the city and the camp, and the repeated Israeli incursions are weakening the roles of the Palestinian security services and the Palestinian Authority.

A Palestinian security officer at the Jenin camp, who asked to remain anonymous, told Arab News that a dairy truck with Palestinian number plates had arrived at about 7 a.m. on Thursday. Inside, there were about 30 members of the Israeli Special Forces. When young residents of the camp spotted the hidden force they attacked it with a barrage of stones, he said. Then reinforcements arrived, including more than 80 Israeli military vehicles and bulldozers, and a drone to monitor the camp.

He said the operation continued for more than four hours, during which the forces surrounded houses and targeted them with heavy gunfire and rockets.

“The camp was like a battlefield and reminded us of what happened in 2002,” the source said.

Following the operation in Jenin, Israeli troops in the West Bank and along the borders with Gaza were put on high alert amid fears of Palestinian retaliation, Israeli defense forces said.

Nabil Aburudeineh, spokesperson for the Palestinian presidency, described the killings as a “massacre” and condemned the silence of the international community over such incidents, “which encourages the Israeli government to commit more massacres against the Palestinian people and continue the escalation policy.”

Abdullatif Al-Qanou, who belongs to Hamas, the organization that rules Gaza, said: “The behavior of the extremist occupation government, the escalation of its crimes, and its transgression against our people will inevitably lead us to the battle of Jerusalem to defend our land, our families and our sanctities.”

Daoud Shehab, a senior leader of Islamic Jihad, said: “The Jenin camp is the most prominent address of challenge and steadfastness throughout Palestine, and Jenin affirms that the resistance continues despite the arrogance and crimes of the occupation.”

Islamic Jihad is a powerful presence in the Jenin camp, where it operates a “Jenin Brigade” of about 300 well-trained fighters that coordinate with all other Palestinian militants in the camps.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due to visit Egypt, Israel and the West Bank this weekend amid the escalation in Israeli-Palestinian violence and American concerns about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new, far-right government.


Sudan delays signing of deal to usher in civilian government

Sudan delays signing of deal to usher in civilian government
Updated 10 sec ago

Sudan delays signing of deal to usher in civilian government

Sudan delays signing of deal to usher in civilian government
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s military leaders and pro-democracy forces will delay the signing of an agreement to usher in a civilian government, both sides said in a joint statement issued early Saturday.
The postponement of the signing — which had been scheduled for later Saturday — comes as key security reform negotiations between the Sudanese army and the country’s powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces appear to have reached a deadlock.
A meeting will be held Saturday “to set a new date for signing the final political agreement, which could not be signed on time due to the lack of consensus on some outstanding issues,” the statement said.
Sudan has been mired in chaos after a military coup, led by the country’s top Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, removed a Western-backed power-sharing government in October 2021, upending the country’s short-lived transition to democracy.
But last December, the military, the RSF and numerous pro-democracy groups signed a preliminary deal vowing to restore the transition.
In recent months, internationally brokered workshops in Khartoum have sought to find common ground over the country’s thorniest political issues in the hope of signing a more inclusive final agreement.
Chief among the discussion points have been security sector reform and the integration of the RSF into the military — the topic of this week’s talks. But talks ended Wednesday without any clear outcome.
Shihab Ibrahim, a spokesperson for one of the largest pro-democracy groups that signed December’s deal, said the army and the RSF have struggled to reach an agreement over the timeline of the integration process.
The army wants a two-year timeline for integration while the RSF has called for a 10-year window, he said.
Spokespersons for the Sudanese army and the RSF did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Iran’s judiciary chief threatens to prosecute ‘without mercy’ unveiled women

Iran’s judiciary chief threatens to prosecute ‘without mercy’ unveiled women
Updated 01 April 2023

Iran’s judiciary chief threatens to prosecute ‘without mercy’ unveiled women

Iran’s judiciary chief threatens to prosecute ‘without mercy’ unveiled women
  • Iran’s Interior Ministry earlier released statement that reinforced mandatory hijab law
  • Iranian women widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets

TEHRAN: Faced with an increasing number of women defying the compulsory dress code, Iran’s judiciary chief has threatened to prosecute “without mercy” women who appear in public unveiled, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei’s warning comes on the heels of an Interior Ministry statement on Thursday that reinforced the government’s mandatory hijab law.
“Unveiling is tantamount to enmity with (our) values,” Ejei was quoted as saying by several news sites. Those “who commit such anomalous acts will be punished” and will be “prosecuted without mercy,” he said, without saying what the punishment entails.
Ejei, Iran’s chief justice, said law enforcement officers were “obliged to refer obvious crimes and any kind of abnormality that is against the religious law and occurs in public to judicial authorities”.
A growing number of Iranian women have been ditching their veils since the death of a 22-year-old Kurdish woman in the custody of the morality police last September. Mahsa Amini had been detained for allegedly violating the hijab rule.
Government forces violently put down months of nationwide revolt unleashed by her death.
Still, risking arrest for defying the obligatory dress code, women are widely seen unveiled in malls, restaurants, shops and streets around the country. Videos of unveiled women resisting the morality police have flooded social media.
Under Iran’s Islamic Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures. Violators have faced public rebuke, fines or arrest.
Describing the veil as “one of the civilizational foundations of the Iranian nation” and “one of the practical principles of the Islamic Republic,” the Interior Ministry statement on Thursday said there would be no “retreat or tolerance” on the issue.
It urged ordinary citizens to confront unveiled women. Such directives have in past decades emboldened hard-liners to attack women without impunity.


Israeli police say killed man who grabbed gun, shot at them

Israeli police say killed man who grabbed gun, shot at them
Updated 01 April 2023

Israeli police say killed man who grabbed gun, shot at them

Israeli police say killed man who grabbed gun, shot at them
  • Passers-by reported hearing gunfire
  • The attack occurred hours after thousands of Palestinians had packed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound

JERUSALEM: Israeli police said Saturday they shot dead an Arab Israeli who grabbed a gun from an officer and fired it in a scuffle in the Old City of Jerusalem.
Police said the attack took place around midnight near the Chain Gate, an access point to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.
Officers stopped a suspect and, as he was being questioned, “the terrorist suddenly attacked one of the policemen,” grabbing his gun “and managing to fire it,” a statement said.
“In a swift response of the officers who were in danger and struggling with the terrorist, they shot him,” the statement said, adding medics later pronounced him dead.
The suspect was identified as a resident of Hura, a Bedouin village in southern Israel.
Passers-by reported hearing gunfire, and an AFP photographer saw scores of Israeli police deployed in the Old City at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT Friday).
The attack occurred hours after thousands of Palestinians had packed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on the second Friday of Ramadan for peaceful prayers.
Israeli police said more than 100,000 faithful had gathered to pray at Islam’s third holiest site, built on what Jews call the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site.
More than 2,000 police officers had been deployed throughout the city.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict had seen an upsurge of violence since the beginning of the year, raising fears of a flare-up during Ramadan.
But the past 10 days since the start of the holy fasting month have seen a relative lull in violence.


US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran
Updated 01 April 2023

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

US seeks to keep Yemen-bound ammunition seized from Iran

WASHINGTON: The United States is seeking to keep more than 1 million rounds of ammunition the US Navy seized in December as it was in transit from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militants in Yemen, the Justice Department said on Friday.
“The United States disrupted a major operation by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to smuggle weapons of war into the hands of a militant group in Yemen,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.
“The Justice Department is now seeking the forfeiture of those weapons, including over 1 million rounds of ammunition and thousands of proximity fuses for rocket-propelled grenades.”
US naval forces on Dec. 1 intercepted a fishing trawler smuggling more than 50 tons of ammunition rounds, fuses and propellants for rockets in the Gulf of Oman along a maritime route from Iran to Yemen, the Navy said.
They found more than 1 million rounds of 7.62mm ammunition; 25,000 rounds of 12.7mm ammunition; nearly 7,000 proximity fuses for rockets; and over 2,100 kilograms of propellant used to launch rocket propelled grenades, it said.
The forfeiture action is part of a larger government investigation into an Iranian weapons-smuggling network that supports military action by the Houthi movement in Yemen and the Iranian regime’s campaign of terrorist activities throughout the region, the Justice Department said.
The forfeiture complaint alleges a sophisticated scheme by the IRGC to clandestinely ship weapons to entities that pose grave threats to US national security.


Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria
Updated 01 April 2023

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia protests about ‘provocative actions’ by US forces in Syria

Russia has protested to the American-led coalition against the Daesh militant group about “provocative actions” by US armed forces in Syria, Tass news agency said on Friday.
Tass cited a senior Russian official as saying the incidents had occurred in the northeastern province of Hasakah. The United States has been deploying troops in Syria for almost eight years to combat Daesh.
Hundreds of Daesh fighters are camped in desolate areas where neither the coalition nor the Syrian army exert full control. Russia — which together with Turkiye is carrying out joint patrols in northern Syria — has agreed special zones where the coalition can operate.
But Russian Rear Admiral Oleg Gurinov, head of the Russian Reconciliation Center for Syria, told Tass that US forces had twice been spotted in areas which lay outside the agreed zones.
“Provocative actions on the part of US armed forces units have been noted in Hasakah province ... the Russian side lodged a protest with the coalition,” he said, without giving details of timing.
Last week the US military carried out multiple air strikes in Syria against Iran-aligned groups that it blamed for a drone attack that killed an American contractor at a coalition base in the northeast of the country.
Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, tipping the balance in President Bashar Assad’s favor. Moscow has since expanded its military facilities in the country with a permanent air base and also has a naval base.