Mon, August 21, 2023
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has killed over 200 Palestinians and nearly 30 Israelis so far this year – already surpassing last year’s annual figures and the highest number since 2005, the U.N. Mideast envoy said Monday.
Tor Wennesland told the U.N. Security Council that the upswing in violence is being fueled by growing despair about the future, with the Palestinians still seeking an independent state.
“The lack of progress towards a political horizon that addressed the core issues driving the conflict has left a dangerous and volatile vacuum, filled by extremists on all sides,” he said.
While Israelis and Palestinians have taken some actions toward stabilizing the situation, Wennesland said unilateral steps have continued to fuel hostilities.
He pointed to the unabated expansion of Israeli settlements – which are illegal under international law “and a substantial obstacle to peace” – as well as Israel’s demolition of Palestinian houses, its operations in the West Bank area under Palestinian administrative and police control, and attacks by Israeli settlers. He also cited “Palestinian militant activity.”
Wennesland said the current situation is compounded by “the fragility” of the Palestinian Authority’s financial situation and severe funding shortages facing U.N. agencies including the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.
“While we must urgently focus on addressing the most critical issues and on de-escalating the situation on the ground, we cannot ignore the need to restore a political horizon,” he said.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who chaired the meeting, condemned violence by both sides and urged immediate steps to reduce the escalating violence.
She reiterated U.S. support for a two-state solution and “good-faith dialogue” between the parties. And she acknowledged the appointment of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador Jordan as non-resident consul general in Jerusalem, adding that the U.S. will support “any and all efforts that will bring us closer to a two-state solution.”
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador Dmitry Polyansky told the council the long-term stagnation of the peace process “is compounded by the ongoing illegal unilateral actions of Israel to create irreversible facts on the ground, which negates the prospects for reviving direct talks between Palestinians and Israelis.” He called the “unprecedented pace” of Israel’s settlement expansion the biggest threat.
Polyansky called a visit to the region by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, expected before the end of the year, “very timely." And he reiterated Russia’s call for a meeting of the so-called Quartet of Mideast mediators – the U.N, U.S., European Union and Russia -- “to revive the peace process and direct Palestinian-Israeli talks on all final status issues.”
France’s political coordinator Isis Jaraud Darnault also condemned “the Israeli colonization of the Palestinian territories” that it wants for its future state, and continuing Israeli demolitions, including a school in the West Bank’s Ramallah region on Aug. 17 which was financed by European donors including France. She also condemned violence against Israelis.
Darnault told the council the U.N. and regional actors have an essential role to play in restoring “a credible political horizon.”
“The normalization of relations between Israel and several states in the region contributes to stability and security, but this dynamic will remain incomplete as long as it is not accompanied by a resumption of the political process towards a solution that meets the legitimate aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis,” she said.
17-year-old Palestinian killed during Israeli military raid in northern West Bank
Associated Press
Updated Tue, August 22, 2023
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli security forces stormed into a town in the north of the West Bank on Tuesday, leading to fighting that killed a 17-year-old Palestinian, according to Palestinian health officials, the latest violence to grip the occupied territory.
The Israeli military conducted an arrest raid before dawn in the town of Zababdeh south of Jenin, local medics said. The Palestinian Health Ministry reported that 17-year-old Othman Abu Kharj was fatally shot in the head. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group claimed Abu Kharj as a fighter.
The raid came as Israeli security forces were still searching for the Palestinian gunman who carried out a shooting in the northern Palestinian city of Hawara that killed an Israeli father and son on Saturday.
The Israeli military said its forces arrested 15 Palestinian suspects in several northern West Bank towns. In Zababdeh, Israeli security forces said they opened fire at residents who threw explosive devices at them.
In the southern West Bank, the Israeli army captured two Palestinians who were suspected in a shooting the day before that killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man. The Israeli military said the two suspects confessed during interrogation to involvement in the attack near the Palestinian city of Hebron. Israeli security forces said they also confiscated the rifle used to shoot at the car on Monday. A car without a license plate that was allegedly used to carry out the attack was found burned north of Hebron, said mayor of the town of Halhoul.
Palestinian media identified the two suspects arrested near Hebron as Saqer and Muhamad al-Shantir.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has come under pressure from coalition members that want to exert more control over the occupied West Bank and take harsher measures against Palestinians.
In response to the spasm of violence, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said he was ordering authorities to ensure that the family members of the Palestinians who carried out the deadly shooting in Hebron were banned from obtaining entry permits into Israel, where day wages are roughly double what people typically earn in the West Bank.
The Israeli military said that its forces further conducted large-scale searches and arrest raids throughout the West Bank, interrogating 20 Palestinians, confiscating illegal vehicles and arresting an additional 13 suspects near Hebron.
Nearly 180 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since the start of this year, according to a tally by The Associated Press. Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone throwing youths protesting the incursions and those not involved in the confrontations have also been killed.
Some 30 people have been killed by Palestinian attacks against Israelis during that time.
Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces, inspire more militancy and entrench Israeli control over lands they seek for a hoped-for future state. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.
Israeli police ‘branded Star of David’ onto Palestinian’s face
Tue, 22 August 2023
Mr Sheikh Ali says he was brutally beaten during his arrest in the Shuafat refugee camp
Israeli police officers have been accused of “branding” a Palestinian man’s face with a Star of David while violently arresting him without recording the incident on their body cameras.
The claim, issued by lawyers representing Arwa Sheikh Ali, 22, has been disputed by Israel’s police force, who claim the mark was “presumably” caused by pressure from a shoelace on an arresting officer’s boot.
A photograph taken of Mr Sheikh Ali, who was arrested on drugs charges, showed wounds on his left cheek, underneath a black eye, which seemed to resemble the Jewish religious symbol.
Mr Sheikh Ali’s lawyer claimed that he was brutally beaten by officers before being branded with the mark.
The arrest occurred in the Shuafat refugee camp in East Jerusalem, where Mr Sheikh Ali lives, as part of a drug investigation. Mr Sheikh Ali has denied all criminal charges, according to his lawyer.
‘Misleading and distorted’
Israeli police insisted that they had used reasonable force and said the suspect violently resisted arrest. They also dismissed the branding claim as “misleading and distorted”.
Officers instead suggested that a patterned shoelace on an officer’s boot was “presumably” imprinted on the suspect’s face while they were restraining him. Police issued a photograph to Israeli media outlets of the type of boot which they said may have been responsible for the triangular marks.
It came as video footage emerged of a separate incident in which Israeli border police officers shot an unarmed Palestinian in the back of the head in the occupied West Bank, where violence has worsened over the past 15 months with frequent Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and assaults on villages by Jewish settlers.
The Israeli border police are investigating the graphic footage, which shows the man falling flat on his face after being hit with a bullet while walking away from clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces. It was not immediately clear if the man survived the attack.
The incident occurred as Israeli forces searched for a Palestinian who earlier this week killed two Israelis, a father and son, in an attack at a car wash in Huwara, a flashpoint town in the northern West Bank.
Also this week, an Israeli woman was killed and an Israeli man seriously injured in a shooting attack near the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
One Israeli forensics expert in Jerusalem has cast doubts on the official explanation by police for the Star of David incident, though he stressed he could not definitively disprove it.
‘Laces can’t leave this kind of imprint’
Dr Avner Rosengarten, the head of the Israel Forensic Science Institute, told local media: “It seems that the markings were created by a metallic tool or instrument … first of all, the width of the laces is not suitable. Secondly, the laces can’t leave this kind of imprint, as the edges are bleeding; it must be a straight, solid instrument.”
He added: “The laces also don’t have the pressure and force required to create this mark, because laces are flexible and soft, and remain the same no matter how much pressure one might put into a shoe.”
A judge has referred the case to police internal affairs as no “reasonable explanation” has been provided for the lack of video footage of the arrest, which involved 16 police officers.
Israeli police officers are increasingly wearing body cameras following a series of pilot schemes, but a 2021 report by the country’s state comptroller found that most do not switch them on during interactions with citizens.
‘The suspect escalated the situation’
An Israeli police spokesman said in a statement: “Upon executing a search warrant at the suspect’s residence in Shufat, law enforcement officials uncovered a significant quantity of substances believed to be drugs, well beyond the scope of personal use.
“At a certain juncture, the suspect escalated the situation by resorting to violence, physically assaulting police officers and vehemently resisting arrest,” the spokesman added.
“This necessitated the involvement of multiple officers to lawfully apprehend the individual … a notable observation during this incident was an injury on the suspect’s person that bore a resemblance to a triangular shape, presumably stemming from an article of clothing worn by one of the police officers.”
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