Latest news with #MajdiMohammed
9 News
29-05-2025
- Politics
- 9 News
Israel authorises new West Bank settlements most countries view as illegal
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here Israel says it will establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip meanwhile killed at least 13 people overnight into Thursday, local health officials said. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war and the Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal and an obstacle to resolving the decades-old conflict. A view of the West Bank Israeli outpost of Homesh on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) Defence Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision "strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria", using the biblical term for the West Bank. He said it "anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism". He added that the construction of settlements was also "a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel". The Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said the announcement was the most extensive move of its kind since the 1993 Oslo accords that launched the now-defunct peace process. It said the settlements, which are deep inside the territory, would "dramatically reshape the West Bank and entrench the occupation even further". Israel has already built well over 100 settlements across the territory that are home to some 500,000 settlers. The settlements range from small hilltop outposts to fully developed communities with apartment blocks, shopping centres, factories and parks. The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Palestinian Authority administering population centres. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Peace Now said the plans call for the authorisation of 12 existing outposts, the development of nine new settlements and reclassifying a neighbourhood of an existing settlement as a separate one. "The government is making clear — again and without restraint — that it prefers deepening the occupation and advancing de facto annexation over pursuing peace," Peace Now said. Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Israel Katz listens during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on the war in Gaza, March 11, 2024, at UN headquarters. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years — long before Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack ignited the war in Gaza — confining Palestinians to smaller and smaller areas of the West Bank and making the prospect of establishing a viable, independent state even more remote. During his first term, US President Donald Trump's administration broke with decades of US foreign policy by supporting Israel's claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimise the settlements. Former president Joe Biden, like most of his predecessors, opposed the settlements but applied little pressure to Israel to curb their growth. The top United Nations court ruled last year that Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on it to end, and for settlement construction to stop immediately. Israel denounced the non-binding opinion by a 15-judge panel of the International Court of Justice, saying the territories are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish people. A view of the West Bank Israeli outpost of Homesh on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) Israel withdrew its settlements from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but leading figures in the current government have called for them to be re-established and for much of the Palestinian population of the territory to be resettled elsewhere through what they describe as voluntary emigration. Palestinians view such plans as a blueprint for their forcible expulsion from their homeland, and experts say the plans would likely violate international law. Israel now controls more than 70 per cent of Gaza, according to Yaakov Garb, a professor of environmental studies at Ben Gurion University, who has examined Israeli-Palestinian land use patterns for decades. The area includes buffer zones along the border with Israel as well as the southern city of Rafah, which is now mostly uninhabited, and other large areas that Israel has ordered to be evacuated. Destroyed buildings in Gaza Strip are seen from southern Israel, Monday, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) (AP) The war began with Hamas' October 7 attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, about a third of them alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements. Israeli forces have rescued eight and recovered dozens of bodies. Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 54,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. Israeli strikes killed at least 13 Palestinians overnight in Gaza, according to local hospitals. Israeli soldiers work on tanks and armoured vehicles at a staging area near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel, Monday, May 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Four were killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City late on Wednesday and another eight, including two women and three children, were killed in a strike on a home in Jabaliya. A strike on a built-up refugee camp in central Gaza killed one person and wounded 18. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas because the militants are embedded in populated areas. Israel Hamas Conflict Gaza World Middle East War Palestine Israel USA conflict CONTACT US Auto news: Google Gemini AI assistant coming to new cars in 2025.
Associated Press
07-03-2025
- General
- Associated Press
An AP photographer sees the plight of Palestinians in one man carrying a refrigerator through the rubble
NUR SHAMS, West Bank (AP) — Majdi Mohammed has been working as a photojournalist for The Associated Press for 19 years in the West Bank. He lives in the village of Salem, east of the city of Nablus. This what he had to say about this extraordinary photo. Why shoot this photo? The distance between Nablus and Tulkarem is approximately 100 kilometers (62 miles), but the trip is compounded by the Israeli military checkpoints that block the main roads, forcing me to take rough, unpaved dirt roads, which adds more difficulty and time to the journey. On the way, news came in that the Israeli army had decided to demolish 17 homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp for Palestinians, giving its residents only two hours to enter their homes and take their personal belongings before the detonations started. Upon arriving at the area, I parked my car away from the event, as it is common for Israeli forces to smash Palestinian cars during raids. I put on my personal safety gear — a bulletproof vest, a helmet, a gas mask, a first aid kit, and my camera — and headed toward the entrance to the camp. At the entrance, the scene was tense and violent. The Israeli soldiers fired into the air to disperse the Palestinians who were impatiently waiting to be allowed to enter their homes. Despite the Red Cross' promises of two hours for residents to collect their belongings, the Israeli forces prevented them from advancing and fired heavily to warn the people. Despite the fear and danger, I chose a moderately safe place to take pictures with my camera, ready to document every moment. How I made this photo Amid the rubble, mud and sewage, an unforgettable scene caught my attention: An elderly man, carrying a small refrigerator on his back, moved with difficulty through the destroyed alleys. He stopped every now and then to catch his breath, then continued to walk with determination. The scene was heavy in its meaning, perhaps as heavy as the refrigerator was on his shoulders. I advanced and came to stand in the middle of the street, flooded with water and mud, and waited for the right moment to take the picture. I knew that it was not just a picture, but a testimony to a larger reality, and that it was also a more human message about the reality of forced displacement, loss, but also steadfastness. The man in the photo is Tawfiq Shahada, 58. He had left his refrigerator with his neighbors a few days earlier, when his house was demolished. On this day, he took advantage of the two hours he was allowed to enter to carry it on his thin back through the ruins. The road was rough, full of debris and mud, but he insisted on carrying it and leaving the camp — as if it were the last thing left of his home. When he came up to me, I was able to do a video interview with him. He spoke in a voice heavy with sadness as he told me that everything in his house had disappeared under the rubble, all the memories he had built with his family and children, ended in a single moment. He told me that when he entered his house today, he found nothing but his wallet. Everything else had been erased by Israeli bulldozers. Why this photo works In his eyes, he was not only carrying a refrigerator, but he was carrying the memory of a house that no longer exists and a life that he tries to continue despite everything. The photo was taken at a moment when I felt that this fridge was not just a physical object that the man was carrying but a symbol of the ongoing state of displacement, of having to carry what one could and leave everything else behind. For me, this photo was not just a documentation of a moment, but a testimony to the suffering that people here live with on a daily basis. I wanted to tell the world this story, to show how carrying the simplest of household items becomes an act of resilience, of perseverance, of continuing to live.
New York Times
24-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Why Tensions Are Rising Over Israel's Operations in the West Bank
Israeli operations against militants in the West Bank have escalated to a level not seen since the Second Intifada of the early 2000s. Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes, with Israel's defense minister saying they will not be allowed to return. And for the first time in two decades, Israeli forces have sent tanks into the city of Jenin and established a military post in another, Tulkarm. Israel appears to be laying the groundwork for a prolonged military presence in the area, and Palestinian officials are warning of a 'dangerous escalation' that risks both a new generation of displacement and putting parts of the West Bank back under military control. Here's what to know about what is happening in the West Bank. The biggest displacement in the West Bank since the 1967 war. Just two days after Israel's cease-fire with Hamas went into effect in Gaza on Jan. 19, Israeli forces shifted their focus to militants in the northern West Bank, namely Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas — and particularly on the refugee camps there. Palestinians fear these expanding operations mask a plan for widespread displacement and reassertion of Israeli control over areas administered by the Palestinian Authority, the semiautonomous body that has run parts of the West Bank since the 1993 Oslo Accords. Palestinians fear expanding Israeli military operations in the West Bank mask a plan for widespread displacement. Credit... Majdi Mohammed/Associated Press Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
