Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins

Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins
Fayez Suliman Tel, head of the village council for Khirbet Zanuta, stands next to a home that was destroyed when his community was driven out by Israeli settlers, Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 08 September 2024
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Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins

Chased away by Israeli settlers, these Palestinians returned to a village in ruins
  • The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers
  • The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank

KHIRBET ZANUTA: An entire Palestinian community fled their tiny West Bank village last fall after repeated threats from Israeli settlers with a history of violence. Then, in a rare endorsement of Palestinian land rights, Israel’s highest court ruled this summer the displaced residents of Khirbet Zanuta were entitled to return under the protection of Israeli forces.
But their homecoming has been bittersweet. In the intervening months, nearly all the houses in the village, a health clinic and a school were destroyed — along with the community’s sense of security in the remote desert land where they have farmed and herded sheep for decades.
Roughly 40% of former residents have so far chosen not to return. The 150 or so that have come back are sleeping outside the ruins of their old homes. They say they are determined to rebuild – and to stay – even as settlers once again try to intimidate them into leaving and a court order prevents them from any new construction.
“There is joy, but there are some drawbacks,” said Fayez Suliman Tel, the head of the village council and one of the first to come back to see the ransacked village – roofs seemingly blown off buildings, walls defaced by graffiti.
“The situation is extremely miserable,” Tel said, “but despite that, we are steadfast and staying in our land, and God willing, this displacement will not be repeated.”
The Israeli military body in charge of civilian affairs in the occupied West Bank said in a statement to The Associated Press it had not received any claims of Israeli vandalism of the village, and that it was taking measures to “ensure security and public order” during the villagers’ return.
“The Palestinians erected a number of structural components illegally at the place, and in that regard enforcement proceedings were undertaken in accordance with law,” the statement said.
The villagers of Khirbet Zanuta had long faced harassment and violence from settlers. But after the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas that launched the war in Gaza, they said they received explicit death threats from Israelis living in an unauthorized outpost up the hill called Meitarim Farm. The outpost is run by Yinon Levi, who has been sanctioned by the U.S., UK, EU and Canada for menacing his Palestinian neighbors.
The villagers say they reported the threats and attacks to Israeli police, but said they got little help. Fearing for their lives, at the end of October, they packed up whatever they could carry and left.
Though settler violence had been rising even before the war under the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it has been turbocharged ever since Oct. 7. More than 1,500 Palestinians have been displaced by settler violence since then, according to the United Nations, and very few have returned home.
Khirbet Zanuta stands as a rare example. It is unclear if any other displaced community has been granted a court's permission to return since the start of the war.
Even though residents have legal protection Israel's highest court, they still have to contend with Levi and other young men from the Meitarim Farm outpost trying to intimidate them.
Shepherd Fayez Fares Al Samareh, 57, said he returned to Khirbet Zanuta two weeks ago to find that his house had been bulldozed by settlers. The men of his family have joined him in bringing their flocks back home, he said, but conditions in the village are grave.
“The children have not returned and the women as well. Where will they stay? Under the sun?” he said.
Settler surveillance continues: Al Samareh said that every Friday and Saturday, settlers arrive to the village, photographing residents.
Videos taken by human rights activists and obtained by The Associated Press show settlers roaming around Khirbet Zanuta last month, taking pictures of residents as Israeli police look on.
By displacing small villages, rights groups say West Bank settlers like Levi are able to accumulate vast swaths of land, reshaping the map of the occupied territory that Palestinians hope to include in their homeland as part of any two-state solution.
The plight of Khirbet Zanuta is also an example of the limited effectiveness of international sanctions as a means of reducing settler violence in the West Bank. The US recently targeted Hashomer Yosh, a government-funded group that sends volunteers to work on West Bank farms, both legal and illegal, with sanctions. Hashomer Yosh sent volunteers to Levi’s outpost, a Nov. 13 Facebook post said.
“After all 250 Palestinian residents of Khirbet Zanuta were forced to leave, Hashomer Yosh volunteers fenced off the village to prevent the residents from returning,” a U.S. State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, said last week.
Neither Hashomer Yosh nor Levi responded to a request for comment on intrusions into the village since residents returned. But Levi claimed in a June interview with AP that the land was his, and admitted to taking part in clearing it of Palestinians, though he denied doing so violently.
“Little by little, you feel when you drive on the roads that everyone is closing in on you,” he said at the time. “They’re building everywhere, wherever they want. So you want to do something about it.”
The legal rights guaranteed to Khirbet Zanuta's residents only go so far. Under the terms of the court ruling that allowed them to return, they are forbidden from building new structures across the roughly 1 square kilometer village. The land, the court ruled, is part of an archaeological zone, so any new structures are at risk of demolition.
Distraught but not deterred, the villagers are repairing badly damaged homes, the health clinic and the EU-funded school — by whom, they do not know for sure.
“We will renovate these buildings so that they are qualified to receive students before winter sets in,” Khaled Doudin, the governor of the Hebron region that includes Khirbet Zanuta, said as he stood in the bulldozed school.
“And after that we will continue to rehabilitate it,” he said, “so that we do not give the occupation the opportunity to demolish it again.”


Lebanon says Israeli attack wounds UN peacekeepers in south

Lebanon says Israeli attack wounds UN peacekeepers in south
Updated 4 sec ago
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Lebanon says Israeli attack wounds UN peacekeepers in south

Lebanon says Israeli attack wounds UN peacekeepers in south
  • Bombing targeted watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion’s base
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s foreign ministry condemned an Israeli attack that it said wounded United Nations peacekeepers in the country’s south, after Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported a new attack on Friday.
The ministry condemned “the targeting... carried out by the Israeli army” on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, most recently “the bombing that targeted watchtowers and the main UNIFIL base in Ras Naqura, and on the Sri Lankan battalion’s base, which led to a number of wounded,” a statement said.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency earlier Friday reported that “an enemy Merkava tank targeted one of the UNIFIL towers on the main road linking Tyre and Naqura... which wounded personnel from the Sri Lankan battalion.”

China, Italy strongly condemn Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base

China, Italy strongly condemn Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base
Updated 8 min 42 sec ago
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China, Italy strongly condemn Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base

China, Italy strongly condemn Israeli fire on UN peacekeeper base
  • UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has also condemned the shooting
  • UNIFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon

BEIJING/ROME: China and Italy have condemned Israeli forces for attacks on UN peacekeeping forces stationed in southern Lebanon.
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres has also condemned the shooting against UN premises and has called for peacekeepers to be protected.
“I am telling Israel these incidents are intolerable,” the UN chief said.
“China expresses grave concern and strong condemnation over the Israeli Defense Forces’ attack on UNIFIL positions and observation posts, which resulted in injuries to UNIFIL personnel,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said, referring to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
UN peacekeepers said Israeli fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday left two Blue Helmets injured, sparking condemnation from European members of the mission.
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Israeli forces have acted illegally by shooting at positions used by UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Thursday, denouncing it as a possible war crime.
The UN peacekeeping mission known as UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel — an area that has seen serious clashes between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.
“This was not a mistake and not an accident,” Crosetto told a news conference. “It could constitute a war crime and represented a very serious violation of international humanitarian law,” he said.
Crosetto said he had contacted his Israeli counterpart to protest and had also summonsed the Israeli ambassador to Italy to demand an explanation, which was not yet forthcoming.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
Unlike some European countries, Italy has been highly supportive of Israel throughout its year-long war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Italy has traditionally supplied a large number of troops to UNIFIL, and although none of its contingent was injured this week, Crosetto said the Israeli actions would not be accepted.
Israel has sought to shift the UNIFIL peacekeepers away from the border, but Italy said it had no right to do so.
“I told the ambassador to tell the Israeli government that the United Nations and Italy cannot take orders from the Israeli government,” Crosetto said.
Israel acknowledged its forces had opened fire in the area, saying the Hezbollah militants on whom it is waging an escalating war operate near UN posts.
Italy, a major contributor of troops to the force, said the acts “could constitute war crimes” while Washington said it was “deeply concerned.”
UNIFIL, which has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon, has called for a ceasefire since an escalation between Israel and Lebanese militant group Hezbollah on September 23, after a year of cross-border fire.


Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
Updated 11 October 2024
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Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack

Iran says ready to ‘defend sovereignty’ against Israel attack
  • The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies
  • Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi: ‘We do not want a war’ but ‘we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario’

TEHRAN: Iran said it is “fully prepared to defend its sovereignty” if its arch-foe Israel attacks as it has threatened to do in response to a barrage of about 200 missiles.
The Islamic republic launched the missiles at Israel on October 1 in retaliation for the killing of two of its closest allies, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, along with an Iranian general.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant vowed this week that his country’s response would be “deadly, precise and surprising.”
In an address to the UN Security Council on Thursday, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, said the Islamic republic “stands fully prepared to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity against any aggression targeting its vital interests and security.”
Iran, he said, was not seeking “war or escalation” but would exercise its “inherent right to self-defense fully in line with international law and will notify the Security Council of its legitimate response.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said meanwhile in an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic on Thursday that “we do not want a war,” but “we are not afraid of it, and we will be ready for any scenario.”
The warnings come against the backdrop of a war between Israel and Iran-allied Palestinian militant group Hamas that has been raging for more than a year and has expanded to include Lebanon in recent weeks.
“Lebanon stands on the brink of a humanitarian collapse, and the international community must not allow this catastrophe to worsen,” Iran’s UN representative Iravani said.


Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
Updated 11 October 2024
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Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire

Indonesia confirms two of its peacekeepers injured in Israeli fire
  • Indonesia foreign minister: ‘Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law’

JAKARTA: Indonesia on Friday confirmed two of its UN peacekeepers were injured in Israeli fire in Lebanon, and called the attack a violation of international law.
UN peacekeepers said Israeli troops opened fire on their headquarters in south Lebanon Thursday, injuring two Blue Helmets, and sparking condemnation.
Israel said it was targeting Hezbollah militants near UN posts in an operation that came after the peacekeeping mission rejected Israeli demands to “relocate” from some of its positions.
“In the attack on the tower in Nakura, two personnel were injured, and they were from Indonesia,” Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said in a statement.
She added the two peacekeepers had sustained light injuries and are in hospital for further observation.
“Indonesia strongly condemns the attack,” she said. “Attacking UN personnel and property is a major violation of International Humanitarian Law.”
She called on all parties to ensure respect for UN territory at all times and under all circumstances.
Indonesia, a staunch critic of Israel and supporter of Palestine, has around 1,232 personnel currently deployed with the UN mission in Lebanon, UNIFIL.
UNFIL has about 10,000 peacekeepers stationed in south Lebanon.


Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
Updated 11 October 2024
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Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers

Scores killed in airstrikes in central Beirut, with Israel also firing on UN peacekeepers
  • Earlier in the day, a strike on a central Gaza school-turned-shelter killed 27 people
  • The first strike, in Ras Al-Nabaa, appeared to have hit the lower half of an apartment building

BEIRUT: Israeli airstrikes on central Beirut on Thursday left two neighborhoods smoldering, killed 22 people and wounded dozens, Lebanon’s health ministry said, as well as further escalating Israel’s bloody conflict with Iran-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
The air raid on central Beirut — the deadliest in over a year of war — apparently targeted two residential buildings in separate neighborhoods simultaneously, according to an AP photographer at the scene. It brought down one apartment building and wiped out the lower floors of the other.
The Israeli military said it was looking into the reported strikes. Israeli airstrikes have been far more common in Beirut’s tightly packed southern suburbs, where Hezbollah bases many of its operations.
After the strikes, Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV reported that an attempt to kill Wafiq Safa, a top security official with the group, had failed. It said that Safa had not been inside of either of the targeted buildings.
Thursday’s strikes followed a year of tit-for-tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel that boiled over into all-out war in recent weeks, with Israel carrying out waves of heavy airstrikes across Lebanon and launching a ground invasion. Hezbollah has expanded its rocket fire to more populated areas deeper inside Israel, causing few casualties but disrupting daily life.
The attack came the same day Israeli forces fired on United Nations peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and wounded two of them, drawing widespread condemnation and prompting Italy’s Defense Ministry to summon Israel’s ambassador in protest.
Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
Witnesses reported a large number of ambulances and people gathering in the rubble of two Beirut sites that were hit, in the Ras Al-Nabaa neighborhood and Burj Abi Haidar area.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said 22 people were killed and 117 others wounded, without elaborating on their identities. Recent Israeli airstrikes in neighborhoods adjoining Beirut, in particular the densely populated southern suburbs, have killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and other senior commanders.
Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in support of Hamas and the Palestinians, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.
Hezbollah kept up rocket fire into Israel on Thursday, setting off air raid sirens in parts of northern Israel. Several drones heading toward Israel were intercepted, the military said.
Iran — which supports Hamas, Hezbollah and other armed groups across the region — launched some 180 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in retaliation for the killing of top Hamas and Hezbollah militants.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Wednesday that its response to the Iranian missile attack will be “lethal” and “surprising,” without providing further details, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with President Joe Biden.
Asked about the latest airstrikes in Lebanon, US Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters in Las Vegas, “We have got to reach a ceasefire, both as it relates to what’s happening in Lebanon, and of course Gaza. We are working around the clock in that regard, but we need these wars to end and we’ve got to definitely de-escalate what is happening in the region.”
Before the latest strikes, Lebanon’s crisis response unit said Israeli attacks over the past day had killed 28 people, bringing the total to 2,169 killed in Lebanon since the war erupted last October.
Hezbollah attacks have killed 28 civilians as well as 39 Israeli soldiers, both in northern Israel since October 2023 and southern Lebanon since Israel launched its ground invasion on Sept. 30. Israel says the invasion, so far focused on a narrow strip along the border, aims to push militants back so that tens of thousands of Israelis can return to their homes in the north.
UN peacekeepers caught in intensified fighting in Lebanon
The UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions “have been repeatedly hit” by Israeli forces.
It said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers had attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.
The two UNIFIL troops wounded in the attacks and hospitalized are Indonesian, Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said.
The Israeli military acknowledged opening fire at a UN base in southern Lebanon on Thursday and said it had ordered the peacekeepers to “remain in protected spaces.”
Later Thursday, the UN peacekeeping chief said 300 peacekeepers in frontline positions on southern Lebanon’s border have been temporarily moved to larger bases, and plans to move another 200 will depend on security conditions as the conflict escalates. Jean-Pierre Lacroix told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council that peacekeepers with UNIFIL are staying in their positions, but because of air and ground attacks they cannot conduct patrols.
UNIFIL, which has more than 10,000 peacekeepers from dozens of countries, was created to oversee the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon after Israel’s 1978 invasion. The United Nations expanded its mission following the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, allowing peacekeepers to patrol a buffer zone set up along the border.
Israel accuses Hezbollah of establishing militant infrastructure along the border in violation of the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, sharply condemned Israeli strikes that hit UNIFIL positions as “an inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”
From Italy, which has about 1,000 soldiers deployed as part of UNIFIL, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto went further, claimed Israel deliberately targeted the UNIFIL base in southern Lebanon in strikes that “could constitute war crimes.”
Several other countries, including France, Spain and Jordan, also denounced the Israeli attacks.
Aid group says staff killed in strike on school
Even as attention has shifted to Israel’s close combat with Hezbollah in Lebanon and rising tensions with Iran, Israel has continued to strike at what it says are Palestinian militant targets across the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Thursday, an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in central Gaza killed at least 27 people, Palestinian medical officials said. The Israeli military said it targeted Palestinian militants, but people sheltering there said the strike hit a meeting of aid workers.
The dead included a child and seven women, according to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, where the bodies were brought. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances streaming into the hospital and counted the bodies, many of which arrived in pieces.
The Israeli military said it targeted a militant center inside the school, without providing evidence. Israel has repeatedly attacked schools that were turned into shelters in Gaza, accusing militants of taking cover in them.
“There were no militants. There was no Hamas,” said Iftikhar Hamouda, who had fled from northern Gaza earlier in the war.
“We headed to tents. They bombed the tents ... In the streets, they bombed us. In the markets, they bombed us. In the schools, they bombed us,” she said. “Where should we go?”
Israel’s offensive in Gaza started after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, when militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250 others.
Israel’s offensive has killed over 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who do not specify between militants and civilians. The war has destroyed large areas of Gaza and displaced around 90 percent of its population of 2.3 million people, often multiple times.