Latest news with #Nablus
CTV News
6 days ago
- Business
- CTV News
UN warns of Gaza famine risk, as Israel vows to build ‘Jewish state' in West Bank
Smoke rises as the Israeli forces demolish the home of Jaafar Mona, a Palestinian militant who died when the bomb he was carrying in Tel Aviv exploded, apparently prematurely, last August. In the West Bank City of Nablus on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) The U.N. warned on Friday that the entire population of Gaza is at risk of famine, as Israel vowed to build a 'Jewish Israeli state' in the occupied West Bank. Israel has faced mounting international pressure over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where the U.N. says only a trickle of aid has been allowed in after a more than two-month blockade. Negotiations to end nearly 20 months of war in Gaza have so far failed to achieve a breakthrough, with Israel resuming operations in March following a short-lived truce. Israel has meanwhile doubled down on its settlement expansion in the West Bank, while defying calls from French President Emmanuel Macron and other world leaders for a two-state solution. Jens Laerke, a spokesman for the U.N. humanitarian agency OCHA, on Friday called Gaza 'the hungriest place on earth'. 'It's the only defined area -- a country or defined territory within a country -- where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred percent of the population at risk of famine,' he said. Recent AFPTV footage has shown chaotic scenes as large crowds of Palestinians desperate for food rushed to a limited number of aid distribution centres to pick up supplies. Israel recently intensified its Gaza offensive in what it says is a renewed push to destroy Hamas, drawing sharp international criticism, including from allies such as Britain and Germany. 'Crusade' against Israel This week Israel announced the creation of 22 new settlements in the West Bank. London called the move a 'deliberate obstacle' to Palestinian statehood, and U.N. chief Antonio Guterres' spokesman said it pushed efforts towards a two-state solution 'in the wrong direction'. On Friday, Defence Minister Israel Katz vowed to build a 'Jewish Israeli state' in the Palestinian territory which Israel has occupied since 1967. 'This is a decisive response to the terrorist organisations that are trying to harm and weaken our hold on this land,' Katz said in a video published by his office. Israeli settlements in the West Bank -- considered illegal under international law -- are seen as a major obstacle to a lasting peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Katz framed the move as a direct rebuke to Macron and others pushing for recognition of a Palestinian state. Macron has recently stepped up his statements in support of the Palestinians, asserting on Friday that recognition of a Palestinian state, with some conditions, was 'not only a moral duty, but a political necessity'. Macron confirmed he would personally attend a conference France is co-hosting with Saudi Arabia at the U.N. in June aimed at reviving the two-state solution. Israel on Friday accused the French president of undertaking a 'crusade against the Jewish state'. The foreign ministry said that 'instead of applying pressure on the jihadist terrorists, Macron wants to reward them with a Palestinian state'. 'Go in with full force' Negotiations aimed at halting the fighting in Gaza have continued, meanwhile, with the White House announcing Thursday that Israel had 'signed off' on a new ceasefire proposal submitted to Hamas. The Palestinian militant group, however, said the deal failed to satisfy its demands, stopping short of rejecting it outright. Far-right Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Telegram that 'after Hamas rejected the deal proposal again -- there are no more excuses'. 'It is time to go in with full force, without blinking, to destroy, and kill Hamas to the last one,' he said. Israel has not confirmed that it approved the new proposal. Gaza's civil defence agency told AFP that at least 45 people had been killed in Israeli attacks on Friday, including seven in a strike targeting a family home in Jabalia in the north. Palestinians sobbed over the bodies of their loved ones at Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital following the strike, AFPTV footage showed. 'These were civilians and were sleeping at their homes,' said neighbour Mahmud al-Ghaf, describing 'children in pieces'. 'Stop the war!' said Mahmud Nasr, who lost relatives. 'We do not want anything from you, just stop the war.' The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Jabalia strike, but said separately that the air force had hit 'dozens of targets' across Gaza over the past day. The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday that at least 4,058 people had been killed since Israel resumed major operations on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,321, mostly civilians. Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, also mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. Of the 251 hostages seized during Hamas's attack, 57 remain in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
CTV News
29-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Israel authorizes more settlements in the occupied West Bank. Strikes on Gaza kill 13, officials say
Smoke rises in the West Bank City of Nablus on Thursday, May 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed) JERUSALEM — Israel said Thursday it would establish 22 Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalization of outposts already built without government authorization. Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip meanwhile killed at least 13 people overnight, 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. Defense Minister Israel Katz said the settlement decision 'strengthens our hold on Judea and Samaria,' using the biblical term for the West Bank, 'anchors our historical right in the Land of Israel, and constitutes a crushing response to Palestinian terrorism.' He added it was also 'a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.' 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 malls, factories and public parks. The West Bank is home to 3 million Palestinians, who live under Israeli military rule with the Western-backed Palestinian Authority administering population centers. The settlers have Israeli citizenship. Israel has accelerated settlement construction in recent years — long before Hamas' Oct. 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, U.S. President Donald Trump's administration broke with decades of U.S. foreign policy by supporting Israel's claims to territory seized by force and taking steps to legitimize 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. Calls for settlements in war-ravaged Gaza 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% 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. The war began with Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, in which militants stormed into Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Hamas still holds 58 hostages, around 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 over 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. Four were killed in a strike on a car in Gaza City late 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. ___ Julia Frankel and Natalie Melzer, The Associated Press Melzer reported from Nahariya, Israel. Associated Press writer Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut contributed.
The National
29-05-2025
- General
- The National
Israel approves 22 West Bank settlements in major blow to prospect of Palestinian state
The Israeli government approved 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, in what campaigners are calling the largest development of its kind in decades that will have a profound effect on Palestinian residents and further harm the prospect of a future Palestinian state. The decision legalises nine outposts, typically home to the most violent and ideological edges of the country's settler movement, and establishes settlements in remote areas of the northern West Bank where there is little to no permanent Israeli military presence. This includes a settlement on Mount Ebal, close to the major Palestinian city of Nablus, where settlers say there is a biblical alter. Some of the new communities are on areas that were evacuated in 2005, when Israel evicted several communities in the north of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Settlers have repeatedly tried to re-enter the area and a law banning Israeli citizens from the region was revoked last year. Lior Amihai of Israeli NGO Peace Now, which tracks settlements, told The National that the move 'is very big in terms of changing the landscape of the West Bank'. 'It's part of many other dramatic decisions that show the government is heading towards annexation and sovereignty over the occupied territories. It's showing Palestinians, Israelis and the world that it doesn't want to end this conflict,' he added. The decision was taken by the government two weeks ago, but Israel's Defence Ministry publicly confirmed the move on Thursday, describing it as 'a step that will change the face of the area and shape the future of settlement for years to come'. Most of the international community views Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal. New settlements along the border with Jordan will also be set, which the Defence Ministry said will bolster Israel's security. The decision also includes settlements in the South Hebron Hills, in the south of the West Bank, which has seen a dramatic increase in attacks against Palestinian shepherding communities leading to major forced displacement in recent years. Mr Amihai said the new settlements have three main purposes: to break the territorial continuity of the West Bank and therefore render a future Palestinian state unviable; suppress Palestinian development in communities that neighbour the illegal Israeli communities; and to 'ethnically cleanse' through intimidation the Palestinian populations of smaller communities that border the settlements. Israel's settlement movement has been expanding its presence in the West Bank for decades, but received a massive boost when the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came into office in December 2022, based on a coalition that contains prominent settlers. This includes Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who also holds a position that is influential for the settlement issue in the Defence Ministry, who said the news marks 'a deep strategic change". 'Settlement in the land that our ancestors inherited is a protective wall for the State of Israel and today we have taken a huge step for its strengthening. The next step is sovereignty,' he added. Annexing the West Bank, which has already happened in East Jerusalem, is a primary goal of many Israeli settlers.
Arab News
27-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Israeli forces raid foreign exchange stores across West Bank
RAMALLAH: Israeli forces raided foreign exchange stores in several West Bank cities including Ramallah and Nablus on Tuesday, accusing their parent company of 'connections with terrorist organizations,' according to an army closure notice. 'Israeli forces are taking action against Al-Khaleej Exchange Company due to its connections with terrorist organizations,' a leaflet left at the company's Ramallah location read. An AFP journalist present at the scene reported several army vehicles at the store's entrance while soldiers came out carrying items covered by a cloth. Two army vehicles escorted one of the store's employees away from the premises. In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli forces raided a second foreign exchange store belonging to the Al-Khaleej company, as well as a gold store, according to another AFP journalist. Some Palestinian residents of Nablus were seen clashing with the army during the raid, throwing objects at troops. The Ramallah-based Ministry of Health said one man was killed and eight other people were injured by Israeli forces' live ammunition during a raid in Nablus on Tuesday. The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 20 people for tear gas inhalation and three others who were injured by rubber bullets. The Palestinian movement Hamas condemned the raids on foreign exchange shops. 'These assaults on economic institutions, accompanied by the looting of large sums of money and the confiscation of property, are an extension of the piracy policies adopted by the (Israeli) government,' the group said in a statement, adding that the targeted companies were 'operating within the law.'
Al Jazeera
27-05-2025
- Business
- Al Jazeera
Israeli forces raid foreign exchange shops in occupied West Bank; one dead
Israeli forces have raided money exchanges across the occupied West Bank, using live fire and tear gas as they stormed the city of Nablus, killing at least one Palestinian and wounding more than 30. Exchange shops in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron Arrabeh, el-Bireh, Bethlehem, Jenin and Tubas were attacked on Tuesday, residents said. In the northern city of Nablus, Israeli soldiers raided a foreign exchange belonging to the Al-Khaleej company and a gold store, according to local media reports. They also fired smoke bombs in the centre of Jenin, and streets were closed in Tubas and Bethlehem in the occupied Palestinian territory. The Ramallah-based Ministry of Health said one man was killed and eight injured by live ammunition during a raid in Nablus. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it treated 20 people for tear gas inhalation and three injured by rubber bullets. The raids on foreign exchanges came as Israel continued its intensified military campaign in Gaza, killing more than 54,000 Palestinians since the war began on October 7, 2023, as tens of thousands of people starve in the besieged enclave. Israeli Army Radio on Tuesday said Israel conducted the raids on foreign exchanges on suspicions that the shops supported 'terrorism'. The radio station also said the operation resulted in the confiscation of large amounts of money designated for 'terrorism infrastructure' in the West Bank. 'Israeli forces are taking action against Al-Khaleej Exchange Company due to its connections with terrorist organisations,' a leaflet left by Israeli forces at the company's Ramallah location read. Al Jazeera's Hamdah Salhut said Israeli authorities have not released an official statement yet but an official talked to the Israeli media about the raids. 'This official said earlier that Israel 'believes' – not that it has any evidence or proof – but 'believes' that these cash exchange places are funnelling money to what they call terror organisations,' said Salhut, who was reporting from Amman, Jordan, because Israel has banned Al Jazeera from reporting from Israel and the West Bank. 'The people who own these shops say they were not given any sort of proof by the Israeli military,' she added. Salhut said it was the fourth time such raids have taken place since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. 'The first time was in December of 2023 when five different cash exchange places were raided by the Israeli military and they seized nearly $3m,' she said. 'It happened again in August 2024 and again in September of that same year.' Hamas denounced the Israeli raids, saying they 'constitute a new chapter in the occupation's open war against the Palestinian people, their lives, their economy, and all the foundations of their steadfastness and perseverance on their land'. 'These assaults on economic institutions, accompanied by the looting of large sums of money and the confiscation of property, are an extension of the piracy policies adopted by the [Israeli] occupation government,' the Palestinian group said in a statement, adding that the targeted companies were 'operating within the law'. Hamas urged the Palestinian Authority to take measures against the Israeli attacks. Separately, the Palestinian Mujahideen Movement said the raids are 'part of the open war against our people, targeting their very existence and cause'. The group also urged the Palestinian Authority to 'defend' Palestinians from such attacks and 'halt its policy of security coordination' with Israel.
