Latest news with #Nablus
Arab News
2 days ago
- Business
- Arab News
Iran-Israel war fears spark fuel shortages in West Bank
'Fearing potential supply disruptions or further escalation, citizens across the West Bank have begun stockpiling fuel,' said Abu Al-RobIn the northern West Bank city of Nablus, dozens of drivers waited in line for fuelRAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Fears over the war between Israel and Iran have led to fuel shortages in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Authority told AFP Wednesday, as drivers queued in long lines to buy fuel.'Fearing potential supply disruptions or further escalation, citizens across the West Bank have begun stockpiling fuel, putting additional pressure on an already strained market,' said Mohammad Abu Al-Rob, director of the PA's communications decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war, Israel on Friday launched a massive bombing campaign that prompted Iran to respond with missiles and PA official said there has also been 'a noticeable decline in the number of fuel tankers arriving from Israel, some of which have been redirected for use by the Israeli occupation army.'In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, dozens of drivers waited in line for Ayoub, a resident of Nablus who had been waiting in line for two hours, said he hoped to finally purchase fuel after several failed attempts.'I came yesterday at about 11:00 p.m. and found the gas stations closed. I also came early in the morning and the situation was the same.'Ahmad Samaana, a truck driver from Nablus, complained of limits placed on fuel purchases.'Large trucks, like the one I have, need about 500 liters, but when we enter the station, the worker at the station tells me that he allows filling up with a value of 500 shekels, which is less than 100 liters of diesel,' he told AFP.'This is not enough for a truck.'Abu Al-Rob noted that 'the (fuel) supply chain remains entirely subject to Israel's will and control,' as the country controls all entry points into the West Bank, which it has occupied since relayed the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority's call 'to safeguard the flow of essential supplies — particularly fuel for hospitals, bakeries, and other critical sectors' should the situation worsen.
Arab News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Israeli forces kill young Palestinian, arrest 60 during night raids in West Bank
LONDON: Israeli forces killed a 21-year-old Palestinian and arrested at least 60 people during night raids on Tuesday across various towns in the occupied West Bank, including a woman, children, and former political prisoners. The Palestinian Authority's affiliated groups, the Commission of Prisoners' Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner's Society, announced on Wednesday that Israeli forces have arrested 160 Palestinians in the West Bank so far this week. Some of those arrested were later released following interrogation. Moataz Al-Hajjleh, 21, from the town of Al-Walaja village near Bethlehem, was killed during an Israeli raid of the area overnight. Israeli forces conducted arrests and investigations during raids in several Palestinian governorates, including Nablus, Jenin and Ramallah. Israeli forces have turned dozens of Palestinian houses into military points after forcibly expelling their inhabitants in the Jenin environs, the Wafa news agency reported. At the same time, several villages had their entrances closed with earth mounds or gates. The prisoners' groups added that ongoing mass detention operations by Israeli forces 'continue to be the most prominent, consistent, and systematic policies employed by the occupation to undermine any escalating resistance against it.'
Arab News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
Israel military raids West Bank camps
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli troops raided two Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank's north overnight, the military said, as Israel presses offensives on multiple fronts. The military said that at 'around 4:00 a.m. Israeli forces entered Balata camp,' near the northern city of Nablus, for 'a routine counter-terrorism operation.' It added that the troops had been deployed to the nearby Askar camp prior to the operation in Balata camp. Imad Zaki, head of the popular services committee of Balata camp, also said that the military began its raid at 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Wednesday. 'They closed all entrances to the camp, seized several homes after evicting their residents, and ordered the homeowners not to return for 72 hours. These homes were turned into military outposts and interrogation centers,' Zaki said. 'The soldiers are conducting house-to-house and neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches, destroying the contents of homes and physically assaulting the residents,' Zaki said. He added that life had been 'largely paralyzed' for the camp's residents but that no injuries were reported. In a separate statement, the military said that its forces had 'neutralized' one Palestinian overnight in the West Bank village of Al-Walaja near Jerusalem. They said that as the troops were deployed in the area, a Palestinian armed with a knife 'attempted to stab (Israeli) soldiers who were operating in the area and steal their weapons.' 'The soldiers responded with fire and neutralized the terrorist,' the army said, using a term it normally uses when someone has been killed. The Israeli military said Tuesday that its forces had been active in various parts of the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank. It said in a statement that its forces had arrested five Palestinian militants suspected of planning attacks on Israel. Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank – a separate Palestinian territory – has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 939 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry. Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis including civilians and soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids, according to official Israeli figures.
BBC News
12-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Brent Council defends decision to twin with Nablus
A north-west London council has defended its decision to twin with an occupied city in the West a full council meeting held in May, Brent Council voted to twin with Nablus to promote "cultural, social, economic, and educational exchanges".Since then, a petition has been set up against the move, saying the twinning did not give due regard to the effects this decision would have on all of its Labour council leader Muhammed Butt said it "was not taken lightly" and that it "followed a period of public engagement, including a petition signed by more than 2,000 residents". In an email response to residents, Butt said he wanted to "acknowledge the pain and trauma that continue to affect Jewish communities both here in Brent and around the world following the horrific terrorist attacks committed by Hamas on October 7th".He said the decision to twin did not represent "support for any political group or administration in Nablus"."Rather, it reflects Brent's humanitarian values and a desire to connect with ordinary people in another part of the world who, like us, strive for peace, education, dignity, and progress for the next generation," he said. Nablus sits in the West Bank, a landlocked territory illegally occupied by Israel in a war in 1967, along with the Gaza Strip. Hamas has controlled Gaza, while Fatah administers most of the West Bank. The two groups are rivals; the Hamas movement was founded to challenge the Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organisation and took control of the Gaza Strip in has recognised Israel, said it renounced terrorism in 1988 and seeks a two-state solution for a Palestinian homeland; Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and killed more than 1,200 people and took 251 hostage in a cross-border attack on 7 October then, more than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry. 'Raise awareness' Brent's Labour group leader Ihtesham Afzal spearheaded the campaign for the partnership. He called the decision "momentous" and "significant"."We'll be doing cultural exchanges, sharing art, history, culture, tradition, poetry, language along with architecture," he said."We'll be collaborating for the mutual benefit of both Brent and Nablus."He added the scheme would "raise awareness about what's happening in Palestine" and that it was first mentioned in 2021-22. "This has not been triggered over what happened in the last couple of years, it's been a long time coming," he money would come from the council's budget and council workers' time would not be spent on it as it was a community project, he added. According to the 2021 Census, Brent has the second highest Arab diaspora in England and Wales, second only to Birmingham with Arabs making up 5.3% of the Brent population (17,924 people)."This is a non exclusionary project. This is showcasing what we're about in Brent; we have Muslim people, Christian people, Jewish people, Hindu, Sikh - we have everybody across the board. We are a melting pot," said asked if he had heard back from the Jewish community on taking part, he said "not in relation as to whether they'll be part of this initiative"."When out on the marches, we have Jewish people, Christian people, Muslim people, Hindu, Sikh, everybody is out. People of all faiths and no faiths and we have that evidence of the support (of the twinning) from the grassroots individuals in the community." 'Particularly dangerous' But Conservative councillor Michael Maurice, who opposed the move, said he was "disappointed" with the decision and that it would be "dangerous" for Brent residents to go to Nablus on exchange trips. "When the motion was first put forward back in November, I proposed a counter motion that Brent should twin with a city or town possibly in Israel which had a mixed Jewish, Arab, Christian community."I'm not opposed to twinning with any particular cities, but I think Nablus is particularly dangerous." On Tuesday, the Israeli army launched a raid on the city, killing two Palestinians according to the Palestinian ministry of health. The Israeli army said it was undertaking a counterterrorism ministers have recently approved new Jewish settlements which are widely seen as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes said twinning was also a question of exchange visits. "In other words, we will go to them and stay with them and take part in their programme and they can come to us and take part in our programmes but it would be very dangerous for us to go there."The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office travel currently advises against all but essential travel to Nablus. Motasem Zaid, a Palestinian engineer who lives in Brent, said he was overwhelmed by the support and solidarity he was shown by people in the believed twinning was about forming a long-term relationship that would last beyond the conflict."It can be and it will be hopefully beneficial for both communities economically, culturally, even with the exchange between the educational institutions between the two communities," he said."The twinning is not meant to exclude anyone. It's meant to do the opposite, it's meant to include everyone."It's not going to cost the council or the taxpayer anything. So to me, if I'm taking this solidarity part out of the equation, it's a risk-free investment."Jewish resident Ian Collier said the twinning was not started the petition against the decision and is calling on the council to reconsider. "Everybody that I spoke to was quite disgusted, as I was, about the idea and the concept," he said."We felt it was just totally out of character with what a council should be doing for its residents."We don't believe it's in the interest of some elements of the community and it does put a number of people in the community at physical harm."At the last count, there were 3,700 Jews living in Brent. I believe that each and everyone of them will feel more threatened because of any particular influence that people in Brent, or worse still the children of people in Brent, receive from having correspondence or interaction with the people of Nablus." Retired GP Jonathan Fluxman, who represents a different Jewish voice in Brent, said twinning would foster understanding."We've heard the stories over and over again," he said. "Othering of Palestinians, of Arabs, of people from the Middle East. 'They're not like us. They don't share our values'. "I think that's nonsense. We are all human beings. We all share a common humanity, and what we need to do is interact with each other and understand each other."There's been a lot of talk about Jewish fears of safety and being made uncomfortable. I have no sense of fear about this." According to the Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) the UK has approximately 2,000 twinning links, which are legal or social agreements between two cities, towns or villages, to boost trade and tourism, promote peace and cultural exchange. The LGIU said such arrangements were "good for fostering business connections and mutually beneficial economic partnerships".Brent has also been twinned with South Dublin County Council since 1997.
Al Jazeera
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Unarmed Palestinian brothers killed in Israeli raid on West Bank's Nablus
A Palestinian man in a red cap walks down the narrow alleyway in Nablus's old city towards a group of Israeli soldiers, clearly unarmed. He attempts to talk to the soldiers, who had flooded into the occupied West Bank city in the early hours of Tuesday as part of Israel's latest military raid – believed to be the largest carried out in Nablus in two years. The soldiers immediately kick and shove the man – 40-year-old Nidal Umairah – before his brother walks over, attempting to intervene. Gunfire follows, and soon the two brothers are lying dead. Nidal and his brother 35-year-old brother Khaled were the latest victims of Israel in the West Bank, after they were killed late on Tuesday. It is unclear which brother had initially been detained, but witnesses were adamant that the behaviour of the Israeli soldiers was an unnecessary escalation that led to the deaths of yet more Palestinians. Ghassan Hamdan, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Nablus, was at the scene of the killings. 'There were at least 12 soldiers and they all fired their automatic machine guns at once,' said Hamdan. After the two men fell to the ground [medics] asked the soldiers if we could treat their wounds. They answered by firing at all of us.' 'We all took cover behind the walls of the old city,' he told Al Jazeera. Hamza Abu Hajar, a paramedic at the scene, said that the Umairah brother who had initially approached the Israeli soldiers had been trying to go to his house to move his family out and away from the Israeli raid. 'They lifted his shirt up to prove he was unarmed,' Abu Hajar said. 'They then started shooting at him, and at us as well.' The Israeli army said it acted in self-defence after one of the Umairah brothers tried to seize a weapon from a soldier. It said that four soldiers had been injured in the incident. The raid in Nablus, which lasted more than 24 hours, is the latest Israel has conducted in the West Bank. Israel has taken advantage of the world's focus on its own war on Gaza since October 2023 to escalate its land theft and violence in the West Bank. During that span, Israel has killed at least 930 people in the West Bank, 24 of whom were from Nablus, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Many of these deaths are the result of violent Israeli raids ostensibly aimed at clamping down on Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, but which have resulted in mass destruction and thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes. According to Hamdan, Israeli troops mainly targeted Nablus's old city by storming into hundreds of homes in the middle of the night. Dozens of people were also reportedly arrested. Young people in the city protested by burning tyres and throwing rocks at Israeli troops, yet they were met with heavy tear gas, injuring at least 80 Palestinians in the raid. In the past, Palestinian protesters have been imprisoned on 'terrorism' charges or shot and killed for simply resisting Israel's occupation by throwing rocks or defying Israeli soldiers. This time around, the Israelis classified the entire old city in Nablus as a closed military zone for 24 hours. No ambulances or medics were allowed inside to aid distressed residents, said Hamdan. 'Nobody was allowed in or out. Nobody was allowed to make any movement at all. We [as medics] could not enter the area during the entire raid to try and help people in need,' he told Al Jazeera. During the raid, Israeli troops stormed into several apartments after blowing off door hinges with explosives. Umm Hassan, a 58-year-old resident who did not want to give her full name, recalls feeling terrified when several Israeli soldiers broke into her home. About five months ago, her husband passed away from cancer, an illness that also claimed two of her children years ago. Umm Hassan is also battling cancer, yet she said Israeli soldiers showed her no mercy. They flipped her television on the ground, broke windows and tossed her paintings off the walls and onto the living room floor. They even vandalised her books by throwing them on the ground, including the Quran. 'I told them to leave me alone. I was alone and so scared. There was nobody to protect me,' Umm Hassan told Al Jazeera. Another woman, Rola, said that Israeli soldiers stormed into her home two times in the span of six hours during the raid. When Israeli soldiers returned the second time, Rola said that they attacked her elderly father, hitting him on the head and chest with the butts of their guns. Rola described her three nieces and nephews – all small children – cowering with fear as Israeli soldiers vandalised and destroyed their home. 'The second time they came to our home, they put us all in a room and we weren't able to leave the room from 8am until 3:30pm,' said Rola. 'We [Palestinians] always talk about being resilient. But the reality is when Israeli soldiers come into your private home, then you get very scared. It's natural. We are humans and humans get scared,' she told Al Jazeera. More than 80 Palestinians received treatment from the Palestine Red Crescent Society during the raid, 25 of them as a result of gunshot wounds. While Israel says its raid was 'precise', inhabitants of Nablus say that the attack on the city was the latest attempt to intimidate and frighten Palestinians. 'Honestly, what were Israeli soldiers searching for in my home? What did they think they were going to find?' asked Rola. 'The reason for their raids [violence] is to uphold the [illegal] occupation.'
