Palestinian children inspect the site of an Israeli strike on a house in Rafah. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hamas is suggesting during ceasefire negotiations that an independent government of non-partisan figures run post-war Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, a member of the Palestinian Islamist movement’s political bureau said Friday.

“We proposed that a non-partisan national competency government manage Gaza and the West Bank after the war”, Hossam Badran said in a statement about the ongoing negotiations between Israel and Hamas with mediation from Qatar, Egypt, and the United States. “The administration of Gaza after the war is a Palestinian internal matter without any external interference, and we will not discuss the day after the war in Gaza with any external parties”, Mr. Badran added.

A Hamas official told AFP the proposal for a non-partisan government was made “with the mediators”.

The government will “manage the affairs of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank in the initial phase after the war, paving the way for general elections” said the official, who did not want his name disclosed.

Mr. Badran’s remarks came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded that Israel retain control of the Philadelphi corridor, Gaza territory along the border with Egypt. This condition conflicts with Hamas’s position that Israel must withdraw from all Gaza territory after a ceasefire.

Mr. Netanyahu said on Thursday that control of the Philadelphi corridor is part of efforts to prevent “weapons to be smuggled to Hamas from Egypt.”

The negotiations are occurring in Doha, Qatar and Cairo, Egypt with the aim of bringing about a ceasefire in Gaza as well as the return of hostages still held there by Hamas.

The war began on October 7 with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures. The militants also seized 251 hostages, 116 of whom remain in Gaza, including 42 the military says are dead.

Israel responded with a military offensive that has killed at least 38,345 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

West Bank:

An Israeli citizen mistakenly entered the Palestinian town of Qalandiya, situated between Jerusalem and Ramallah, in West Bank and was soon met with aggression from local residents, leading to a violent confrontation.

Videos circulating on social media show a mob of Palestinians chasing the Israeli vehicle, hurling stones at it. The driver attempted to flee but ultimately lost control, crashing into a concrete divider near a military checkpoint, a Times of Israel report said. The man reportedly suffered minor injuries before being rescued and transported to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital.

היהודי הגיע פצוע למחסום קלנדיה, לאחר שנזרקו אבנים לרכבו, והתנגש בבטונדות של המעבר. כוחות מגב משטרה ומד״א הוקפצו לאירוע.
המשך לקלנדייה pic.twitter.com/IpGOuCn7Ig

— כל החדשות בזמן אמת (@Saher95755738) June 29, 2024

Other footage revealed that the vehicle was set ablaze by the Palestinian attackers.

The car of the Jew who accidentally entered Qalandia was set on fire. רכבו של היהודי שנכנס בטעות לקלנדיה, הוצת. pic.twitter.com/PAZkT3z9cY

— Rat Bastard (@RRespawned) June 29, 2024

This incident comes amid a backdrop of escalating violence in the West Bank, an area under Israeli occupation since 1967. Last week, the Israeli military reported the death of a soldier and serious injury to another during an operation in Jenin, a city known for its militant presence. The Israeli army frequently conducts raids in Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp as part of its ongoing security operations.

The West Bank has seen a significant surge in violence, especially following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on October 7. Palestinian officials report that at least 553 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the conflict began. Meanwhile, attacks by Palestinians have resulted in the deaths of at least 15 Israelis, including soldiers, in the same period, according to news agency AFP.

Jerusalem:

The Israeli military has approved permission for Israelis to return to three former West Bank settlements they had been banned from entering since an evacuation ordered in 2005, the defence ministry said on Wednesday.

The three settlements, Sa-nur, Ganim and Kadim, are located near the Palestinian cities of Jenin and Nablus, both of which are strongholds of armed groups in the northern West Bank.

A fourth settlement, Homesh, was cleared for entry last year after parliament passed an amendment to the so-called “disengagement law” of 2005. Permission from the military, which has overall control of the West Bank, was required for any return to the other three former settlements.

The military announced the move on the day three European states said they would formally recognise the State of Palestine, and as Israel’s military offensive against the Palestinian group Hamas continued in the Gaza Strip.

It took the decision despite international pressure on Israel to curb settlement expansion in the West Bank, which Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state alongside Gaza.

“The Jewish hold on Judea and Samaria guarantees security, the application of the law to cancel disengagement will lead to the development of settlement and provide security to residents of the area,” Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said in a statement, using the Biblical names for the West Bank that are often used in Israel.

There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority.

Last year’s amendment to the disengagement law was seen as opening the way to re-establishing former West Bank settlements evacuated in 2005 under a plan overseen by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Under the plan, which was opposed by the settler movement at the time, all 21 Israeli settlements in Gaza were ordered to be evacuated. Most settlements in the West Bank were unaffected apart from the four that will now be accessible again.

More than 500,000 Jewish settlers are now estimated to be living in the West Bank, part of territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, with a further 200,000 living in East Jerusalem.

For Palestinians and most of the international community, the settlements are considered illegal. Israel disputes this, citing the Jewish people’s historical, biblical and political links to the area as well as security considerations.

Despite international opposition, settlements have continued to expand strongly under successive Israeli governments.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tel Aviv:

Hamas announced on Sunday that its commander in the West Bank is among the four people killed in a raid by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

The man is identified as Alaa Shreiteh (45), West Bank commander of the al-Qassim brigades of Hamas. Shreiteh was earlier jailed in Israel between 2002 and 2016.

The IDF exchanged fire with Hamas at Daryl al-Ghusun on Saturday.

According to IDF, there was a twelve-hour gun battle in the Tulkarem area of the West Bank between its forces and Hamas militants in which four Hamas men were killed.

However, the identity of Alaa Shreiteh was revealed by the al-Qassim brigade early on Sunday.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Tulkarem:

The Israeli army said troops killed five Palestinian “terrorists” barricaded in a building during a 12-hour siege in the occupied West Bank on Saturday.

An AFP photographer saw a heavy military deployment in the village of Deir al-Ghusun, near the northern town of Tulkarem.

Troops deployed a bulldozer to flatten a building and carried at least one body out of the rubble, the photographer reported.

Israeli forces “engaged in an extensive 12-hour counterterrorism operation in the Tulkarem area,” the army and the Shin Bet security service said in a joint statement.

They said troops had come under fire after entering the village to “neutralise a terrorist cell” and had “retaliated” with “live ammunition, shoulder-fired missiles and other weaponry”.

An army drone registered two hits on the building before sappers moved in to “dismantle” it.

“The confrontation ended with the elimination of five terrorists, and the seizure of military gear and weapon components,” the joint statement said.

A member of a counterterrorism unit of Israel’s border police was wounded in the operation, it added.

The already restive West Bank has seen a surge in violence since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7. At least 496 Palestinians have been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP tally.

The Gaza war started with an unprecedented Hamas attack on southern Israel that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,654 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian men at a military post near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the army and Palestinian officials reported.

The incident occurred when several militants arrived in a vehicle and fired at soldiers stationed at the Salem military post at the entrance to Jenin, the army said in a statement.

“The soldiers, who were pre-positioned due to several similar past incidents, eliminated two terrorists,” the army said.

Palestinian authorities in Ramallah identified the two men killed at the military post as Mustafa Sultan Abed, 21, and Ahmed Muhammad Shawahna, 20.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Israeli forces withheld their bodies after denying medics access to them, adding two other men had been hospitalised after being wounded.

Later on April 27, residents of Sultan Abed’s village of Kfardan held a march paying tribute to him, an AFP correspondent reported.

The mourners included several gunmen who fired in the air.

“I am proud of my son’s martyrdom… but the pain I feel in my heart as a father is impossible to comprehend or bear,” said Sultan Abed’s father.

Abu Nissan, a local commander of Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, said the militants were not “shaken” by the killing.

“He is not the first martyr, nor he will be the last. We all are martyrs,” he told AFP.

Israeli forces regularly carry out raids in and around Jenin and its adjacent refugee camp, a hub of militant groups.

The West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has seen a surge in violence for more than a year, particularly since the Israel-Hamas war erupted on October 7.

At least 491 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers across the West Bank since October 7, according to Palestinian officials.

The Gaza Strip has been at war since Hamas and other Palestinian militants carried out an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7.

That attack resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, including Israelis and foreigners, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip has killed at least 34,388 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. File
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

The European Union said on Friday it had agreed to impose sanctions against four people and two entities over violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The listed entities are Lehava, a radical right-wing Jewish supremacist group, and Hilltop Youth, the European Union Council said in a statement.

Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also listed, it added.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and the area has been under military occupation since, while Israeli settlements have consistently expanded. Palestinians envisage the West Bank as part of a future independent state also including Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Israeli forces shot dead a 13-year-old Palestinian boy during a raid in the occupied West Bank, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Saturday, an incident which the Israeli military said was under review.

There were confrontations with Israeli forces at the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin city, during a pre-dawn military raid there, the Wafa report said. The Israeli military said a number of Palestinian gunmen had shot at its troops, who returned fire.

A report was later received regarding a Palestinian minor who was killed, the military said.

“The circumstances of the incident are under review,” it said in a statement to Reuters.

The teen’s death was confirmed by Fawaz Hammad, director of Al-Razi Hospital in Jenin, Wafa said.

Violence in the West Bank, among the territories which the Palestinians seek for a state, had already been on the rise before the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza that began in October and has since escalated with frequent Israeli raids and Palestinian street attacks.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Jerusalem:

Israel reported Friday the seizure of 800 hectares (1,977 acres) of land in the occupied West Bank, which activists called the largest action of its kind in decades.

Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared as “state lands” the area in the northern Jordan Valley, as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for Gaza war talks.

Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the size of the seized area is the largest since 1993’s Oslo Accords, and that “2024 marks a peak in the extent of declarations of state land”.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

“While there are those in Israel and the world who seek to undermine our right over the Judea and Samaria area and the country in general, we are promoting settlement through hard work and in a strategic manner all over the country,” Smotrich said, using Israel’s term for the West Bank.

Settlements in the Palestinian territories are illegal under international law.

Smotrich, who heads the extreme-right Religious Zionism party, lives in a settlement.

Despite opposition abroad, Israel has in recent decades build dozens of settlements across the West Bank.

They are now home to more than 490,000 Israelis, who live alongside around three million Palestinians in the territory.

The United Nations human rights chief has reported a drastic acceleration in illegal settlement building since Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza began months ago, and said this risks eliminating any likelihood of a viable Palestinian state.

Blinken has described settlement expansion as “counterproductive to reaching enduring peace” with the Palestinians.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Ramallah, West Bank:

Israeli aircraft struck a compound beneath a mosque in the occupied West Bank early on Sunday that the military said was being used by terrorists to organise attacks, and Palestinian medics said at least one person was killed.

The Israeli air strike is at least the second in recent days to hit the West Bank, where violence has surged since Hamas gunmen from Gaza carried out a deadly October 7 rampage in Israel.

Israel said the compound beneath al-Ansar Mosque, in Jenin refugee camp, belonged to operatives from Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who were responsible for attacks in recent months.

“Intel was recently received which indicated that the terrorists, (who) were neutralized, were organizing an imminent terror attack,” the military said in a statement.

The military released images that it said showed an entrance to a bunker under the mosque. It also released a diagram that it said showed where terrorists had stored weapons there.

The IDF & ISA just conducted an aerial strike on a Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist compound in the Al-Ansar Mosque in Jenin.

Recent IDF intel revealed that the Mosque was used as a command center to plan and execute terrorist attacks against civilians. pic.twitter.com/gQfyv6wUAV

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 22, 2023

Jenin refugee camp was the focus of a major Israeli military operation earlier this year.

Footage on social media, appearing to show the scene of the air strike, showed a gaping hole in one of the mosque’s exterior walls, surrounded by debris. Several dozen Palestinians are seen assessing the damage, as ambulance sirens blare in the background.

The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance service said at least one Palestinian was killed and three others injured. It had earlier said that two people were killed.

Residents of the camp said they received warnings from the Israeli military to stay away from the terrorists due to an impending incursion into the camp. They said the military did not specify a date.

Since the October 7 Hamas rampage, which has drawn two weeks of lethal Israeli bombardment of Gaza, at least 84 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces, Palestinian officials say.

On Thursday, Israel’s military said it raided and carried out an air strike in a refugee camp near the central city of Tulkarm. The military said the raid was aimed in part at apprehending suspects and confiscating weapons. Palestinians said at least 12 were killed.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)