Israel’s president condemns ‘pogrom’ after deadly attack by Jewish settlers on Palestinian village

Israel’s president condemns ‘pogrom’ after deadly attack by Jewish settlers on Palestinian village
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Activists try to reach a land confiscated by Israeli settlers in the al-Makhrur area near Beit Jala in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on August 15, 2024. (AFP)
Israel’s president condemns ‘pogrom’ after deadly attack by Jewish settlers on Palestinian village
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Activists try to reach a land confiscated by Israeli settlers in the al-Makhrur area near Beit Jala in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on August 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 16 August 2024
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Israel’s president condemns ‘pogrom’ after deadly attack by Jewish settlers on Palestinian village

Israel’s president condemns ‘pogrom’ after deadly attack by Jewish settlers on Palestinian village
  • "This is not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism," Herzog posted on X, formerly Twitter
  • He urged law enforcement officials to "act immediately against this serious phenomenon and bring the lawbreakers to justice"

JERUSALEM: Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday condemned a “pogrom” after a Jewish settler attack on a village in the occupied West Bank that the Palestinian Authority said killed one Palestinian and wounded another.
Mahmoud Abdel Qader Sadda, 23, “was martyred, and a citizen was critically injured in the chest by settlers’ bullets” in the village of Jit, west of Nablus, a Palestinian health ministry statement said.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing local sources, said “armed colonists” attacked the western part of the village, “setting several vehicles ablaze.”

The Israeli military said “dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked,” entered Jit and “set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails.”

Videos of the "attack" posted on social media showed homes burning in the village of Jit, east of Qalqilia in the West Bank.

One Israeli was taken for questioning, said a military statement, which did not confirm the Palestinian man’s death.

“I strongly condemn this evening’s pogrom in Samaria,” Herzog wrote on X, formerly Twitter, using the name of the biblical province corresponding to the northern West Bank.

“This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding settler population and the settlement as a whole and the name and position of Israel in the world during a particularly sensitive and difficult period.

"This is not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism. Law enforcement officials must act immediately against this serious phenomenon and bring the lawbreakers to justice," he said.

Pogrom, of Yiddish and Russian origin, refers to an organized massacre of a particular ethnic or religious group, according to various dictionaries.  Herzog's use of the term on Jewish settlers is significant as the Jewish people in Russia or eastern Europe were the target of pogroms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “takes seriously the riots that took place this evening,” according to a statement from his office.

“Those responsible for any criminal act will be caught and prosecuted,” the statement said.

Violence in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, has surged since the Gaza war started on October 7.

Israeli settlement there — considered illegal under international law — has also hit new records.

Netanyahu, head of the conservative Likud party, has governed Israel since December 2022 with the support of far-right formations advocating more Israeli settlements in the West Bank or even outright annexation.

His right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, an architect of the upsurge in Israeli settlements in the West Bank, wrote on X that the attackers in Jit had “nothing to do with the settlement and the settlers.”

“They are criminals who must be dealt with by the law enforcement authorities with the full force of the law,” he added.

Since October 7, at least 633 Palestinians have been killed in violence with settlers or Israeli troops, according to the Palestinian authorities.

At least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in attacks involving Palestinians, according to official Israeli figures.

Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, some 490,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank alongside roughly three million Palestinians.
 

 

 

 

 

 


Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayors with state officials in two eastern cities

Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayors with state officials in two eastern cities
Updated 23 November 2024
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Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayors with state officials in two eastern cities

Turkiye replaces pro-Kurdish mayors with state officials in two eastern cities

ANKARA: Turkiye stripped two elected pro-Kurdish mayors of their posts in eastern cities on Friday, for convictions on terrorism-related offenses, the interior ministry said, temporarily appointing state officials in their places instead.
The local governor replaced mayor Cevdet Konak in Tunceli, while a local administrator was appointed in the place of Ovacik mayor Mustafa Sarigul, the ministry said in a statement, adding these were “temporary measures.”
Konak is a member of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which has 57 seats in the national parliament, and Sarigul is a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Dozens of pro-Kurdish mayors from its predecessor parties have been removed from their posts on similar charges in the past.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said authorities had deemed that Sarigul’s attendance at a funeral was a crime and called the move to appoint a trustee “a theft of the national will,” adding his party would stand against the “injustice.”
“Removing a mayor who has been elected by the votes of the people for two terms over a funeral he attended 12 years ago has no more jurisdiction than the last struggles of a government on its way out,” Ozel said on X.
Earlier this month, Turkiye replaced three pro-Kurdish mayors in southeastern cities over similar terrorism-related reasons, drawing backlash from the DEM Party and others.
Last month, a mayor from the CHP was arrested after prosecutors accused him of belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), banned as a terrorist group in Turkiye and deemed a terrorist group by the European Union and United States.
The appointment of government trustees followed a surprise proposal by President Tayyip Erdogan’s main ally last month to end the state’s 40-year conflict with the PKK.


Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes
Updated 23 November 2024
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Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes

Gaza civil defense says 19 killed in Israeli strikes
  • More than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip

Gaza City: Gaza’s civil defense agency said that 19 people, some of them children, were killed in Israeli air strikes and tank fire on Saturday.
Agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that “19 people were killed and more than 40 others wounded in three massacres caused by Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip between midnight and this morning,” as well as by tank fire in Rafah in the territory’s south.


11 dead as powerful Israeli airstrike shakes central Beirut

11 dead as powerful Israeli airstrike shakes central Beirut
Updated 32 min 12 sec ago
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11 dead as powerful Israeli airstrike shakes central Beirut

11 dead as powerful Israeli airstrike shakes central Beirut
  • Attack destroyed an eight-story building and caused a large number of fatalities and injuries

BEIRUT: A powerful airstrike killed 11 people in central Beirut on Saturday, the Lebanese civil defense said, shaking the capital as Israel pressed its offensive against the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The attack destroyed an eight-story building and caused a large number of fatalities and injuries, Lebanon’s National News Agency said. Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al-Jadeed station showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

Israel used bunker buster bombs in the strike, leaving a deep crater, the agency said. Beirut smelled strongly of explosives hours after the attack.

The blasts shook the capital at around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT). Security sources said at least four bombs were dropped in the attack.

It marked the fourth Israeli airstrike this week targeting a central area of Beirut, in contrast to the bulk of Israel’s attacks on the capital region, which have hit the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs. On Sunday an Israeli airstrike killed a Hezbollah media official in the Ras Al-Nabaa district of central Beirut.

Rescuers searched through rubble, in an area of the city known for its antique shops.

HOSPITALIZED DAUGHTER

A man whose family was hurt tried to comfort a traumatized woman outside a hospital. Car windows were shattered.

“There was dust and wrecked houses, people running and screaming, they were running, my wife is in hospital, my daughter is in hospital, my aunt is in the hospital,” said the man, Nemir Zakariya, who held up a picture of his daughter.

“This is the little one, and my son also got hurt – this is my daughter, she is in the American University (of Beirut Medical Center), this is what happened.”

Israel launched a major offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon in September, following nearly a year of cross-border hostilities ignited by the Gaza war, pounding wide areas of Lebanon with airstrikes and sending troops into the south.

Israeli strikes killed at least 62 people and injured 111 in Lebanon on Thursday, bringing the toll since October 2023 to 3,645 dead and 15,355 injured, Lebanon’s health ministry said. The figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Hezbollah and the Lebanese government accuse Israel of indiscriminate bombing that kills civilians. Israel denies the allegation and says it takes numerous steps to avoid the deaths of civilians.

Hezbollah strikes in the same period have killed more than 100 people in northern Israel and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. They include more than 70 soldiers killed in strikes in northern Israel and the Golan Heights and in combat in southern Lebanon, according to Israel.

The conflict began when Hezbollah, Tehran’s most important ally in the region, opened fire in solidarity with its Palestinian ally Hamas after it launched the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel.

A US mediator traveled to Lebanon and Israel this week in an effort to secure a ceasefire. The envoy, Amos Hochstein, indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz.


Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive

Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive
Updated 23 November 2024
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Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive

Orchestra conductor mourns childhood home’s destruction in Israel’s southern Lebanon offensive
  • Destruction of Lubnan Baalbaki’s childhood home in October came during Israel’s offensive in Lebanon
  • Baalbaki’s family home in Odaisseh, designed by his late father, held more than just personal memories

BEIRUT: Lubnan Baalbaki, the conductor of the Lebanese Philharmonic Orchestra, watched on his phone screen as an aerial camera pointed to a village in southern Lebanon. In seconds, multiple houses erupted into rubble, smoke filling the air. The camera panned right, revealing widespread devastation.
He zoomed in to confirm his fears: His family’s house in the border village of Odaisseh, where his parents are buried, was now in ruins.
“To see your house getting bombed and in a split second turned into ash, I don’t think there is description for it,” Baalbaki said.
The destruction of his childhood home in October came during Israel’s offensive in Lebanon. The aim, Israel says, is to debilitate the Hezbollah militant group, push it away from the border and end more than a year of Hezbollah fire into northern Israel.
The Israeli military has released videos of controlled detonations in areas along the border, saying it is targeting Hezbollah facilities and weapons.
But the bombardment has also wiped out entire residential neighborhoods or even villages. The World Bank in a recent report said over 99,000 housing units have been “fully or partially damaged” by the war in Lebanon.
Baalbaki’s family home in Odaisseh, designed by his late father, renowned Lebanese painter Abdel Hamid Baalbaki, held more than just personal memories. It held a collection of Abdel Hamid’s paintings, his art workshop and over 1,500 books. All were destroyed along with the house.
What cut even deeper, Baalbaki said, was the loss of the letters his parents exchanged during his father’s art studies in France. Only a few remain as digital photos.
“The language of passion and love they shared was filled with poetry,” Baalbaki said.
In a book of poems and photographs his father created for his wife following her sudden death in a car accident, the first page reads, “Dedication to Adeeba, the partner of my most precious days, the love bird that left its nest too soon.”
Abdel Hamid painstakingly designed his wife’s tombstone. Later, he was laid to rest beside her in the garden next to the house. For their son, watching his childhood home go up in smoke brought back the pain of losing them.
It was a moment he had feared for months.
Hezbollah began firing missiles into Israel on Oct. 8, 2023, in solidarity with Hamas in Gaza. Israel responded with airstrikes and shelling. For nearly a year, the conflict remained limited.
After the war dramatically escalated on Sept. 23 with intense Israeli airstrikes on southern and eastern Lebanon as well as Beirut’s southern suburbs, Baalbaki and his siblings frequently checked satellite images for updates on their village.
On Oct. 26, explosions in and around Odaisseh triggered an earthquake alert in northern Israel. That day, videos circulated online, one of which showed their home being obliterated.
Until a few days before that, the satellite images showed their house still standing.
Now, Baalbaki said, he is resolved to honor his father’s dream.
“The mourning phase started to turn to determination to rebuild this project,” he said.
When the war is over, he plans to rebuild the house as an art museum and cultural center.


226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO
Updated 23 November 2024
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226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO

226 health workers killed in Lebanon since Oct. 7 — WHO
  • Over 187 attacks on healthcare workers have taken place in Lebanon over 13 months, says UN health agency
  • Fifteen of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning, warns WHO

GENEVA: Nearly 230 health workers have been killed in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s war in Gaza following the Oct. 7 attacks last year, the World Health Organization said.
In total, the UN health agency said there had been 187 attacks on health care in Lebanon in the more than 13 months of cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah over the Gaza conflict.
Between Oct. 7, 2023 and Nov.18 this year, “we have 226 deaths and 199 injuries in total,” Abdinasir Abubakar, the WHO representative in Lebanon, said via video link from Beirut.
He said “almost 70 percent” of these had occurred since the tensions escalated into an all-out war in September.
Saying this was “an extremely worrying pattern,” he stressed that “depriving civilians of access to lifesaving care and targeting health providers is a breach of international humanitarian law.”
Abubakar said: “A hallmark of the conflict in Lebanon is how destructive it has been to health care,” highlighting that 47 percent of these attacks “have proven fatal to at least one health worker or patient” — the highest percentage of any active conflict today.
By comparison, Abubakar said that only 13.3 percent of attacks on health care globally had fatal outcomes during the same period, pointing to data from a range of conflict situations, including Ukraine, Sudan, and the occupied Palestinian territory.
He suggested the high percentage of fatal attacks on health care in Lebanon might be because “more ambulances have been targeted.”
“And whenever the ambulance is targeted, actually, then you will have three, four or five paramedics ... killed.”
The conflict has dealt a harsh blow to overall health care in Lebanon, which was already reeling from a string of dire crises in recent years.
The WHO warned that 15 of Lebanon’s 153 hospitals have ceased operating or are only partially functioning.
Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s regional director for the eastern Mediterranean region, stressed that “attacks on health care of this scale cripple a health system when those whose lives depend on it need it the most.”
“Beyond the loss of life, the death of health workers is a loss of years of investment and a crucial resource to a fragile country going forward.”