DAMASCUS, Syria — Israeli forces raided a Syrian village and opened fire when they were confronted by residents Friday, killing at least 13 people, Syrian officials said, in the deadliest Israeli attack since troops seized a swath of southern Syria a year ago.
Syria’s Foreign Ministry called the attack a “horrific massacre” and said women and children were among those killed.
– At least 13 Syrians have been killed and others wounded during an Israeli ground incursion and air strikes on the town of Beit Jinn, southwest of Syria’s capital Damascus.
– Palestine’s Foreign Ministry is demanding action from the international community to halt Israel’s “war crime” as it continues its large-scale military assault on the occupied West Bank.
“What happened in Gaza was genocide,” he said, stressing that the Gaza Strip is an inseparable part of a future united Palestinian state.
He said Israel is not only breaching the truce, but also accelerating settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and pushing ahead with attempts to Judaise the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound – all in violation of international law.
“The international community must provide protection for the Palestinian people and ensure that perpetrators of genocide do not escape accountability,” the emir said, criticising the UN for failing to uphold international legitimacy “when it comes to the tragedy of the Palestinians”.
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An „International Stabilization Force“ (ISF) would be set up in tandem with „Arab and international partners“ that is in charge of establishing control and stability in the enclave, similar to earlier plans discussed of an Arab or regional „peacekeeping“ force.
The plan categorically states that „Israel will not occupy or annex Gaza“, but it leaves the window open for a lot of interpretation and puts the ball in Israel‘s court to withdraw from the strip. It says that Israel will withdraw troops based on „standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarisation“ that Israeli forces, the ISF, guarantors and the US agree to.
It adds that Israeli forces would „progressively hand over the territory it occupies“ to the ISF according to an agreement with the transitional government, „save for a security perimeter presence that will remain until Gaza is properly secure from any resurgent terror threat“.
As chair of the “transitional” body, Trump would oversee the framework and funding for redevelopment of the Gaza Strip until a time when the Palestinian Authority, the governing body in the West Bank, has met conditions to assume governance in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military would slowly scale back its presence.
“This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment,” according to the plan.
The draft for the so-called Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) puts substantial flesh on reporting of the ideas that Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner are reported to have been circulating, including that Blair “wants” the role of running Gaza.
Palestinian critics who have seen the proposal – and who have long viewed Blair with suspicion – warned that Gita would be a “disaster” for Palestine, creating an alternative jurisdiction in Gaza to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
קווי דמיון ביןמדיניות הקרקעות והדיור המשפיעה על פלסטינים בישראל לביןזוהחלהעל פלסטינים בגדה המערבית
הכבושה מצביעים עלקיומה של מדיניות רחבה יותר ביחס לאוכלוסייה הפלסטינית בכללותה, שנועדה להבטיח רוב יהודי
בכלל האזוריםהמצוייםתחת שליטהישראלית, תוך צמצום האפשרות להגדרה עצמית גיאוגרפית עבור העם הפלסטיני.
בדוח זוהו ששה שרים ישראליים כמי שנושאים ככל הנראה בעיקר האחריותלביצוע פשעים בינלאומיים הנוגעים לקרקעות
ודיור, כמו גם לפשעים אחרים שזוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדוחותיה הקודמים:
•שר הביטחון לשעבריואב גלנטושר הביטחון הנוכחיישראל כץנושאים באחריותלפעולותיהם של כוחות הביטחון
הישראליים בעזה;
•שר האוצרבצלאל סמוטריץ‘ושרת ההתיישבות והמשימות הלאומיותאורית סטרוקנושאים במשותף באחריות
להנעת הקמתן והרחבתן של התנחלויותבגדה המערבית הכבושה, לרבות מזרח ירושלים;
•השר לביטחון לאומיאיתמר בן-גבירנושא באחריות למעשיהתעללותשלרשויות הכליאה הישראליות בעצירים
פלסטיניים, אשר זוהו על-ידי הוועדה בדיווחה הקודםלעצרתהכללית;
•ראש הממשלהבנימין נתניהונושא באחריות הסופית להתנהלותה של ישראל בשטח הפלסטיני הכבוש בכללותו,
ובאחריות ישירהלאור הוראותיו לביצוע מעשיםהמהווים פשעי מלחמה, פשעים נגד האנושות, ופשע השמדת עם;
•ראש הממשלהנתניהוושר הביטחון לשעברגלנטנושאים גם באחריותלפשע ההסתה לביצוע השמדת עם
82. Successive Governments of Israel have implemented laws and policies to diminish Palestinian space in Israel, including confining Palestinian localities and hindering Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving and integrating into Jewish localities. In addition, informal barriers resulting from wider, primarily socioeconomic, inequalities between the two populations have grown and become entrenched over decades, further preventing integration.
83. Some policies and laws are explicitly discriminatory. Others have a discriminatory impact, resulting in segregation. This is evident from the “admissions committees” policy and law, as well as statements of Israeli officials’ supporting the development of exclusively non-Jewish localities to deter and prevent Palestinians with Israeli citizenship from moving into mixed cities.
84. Such discrimination in laws and policies is a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Specifically, Israel has violated article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which obliges States to ensure adequate standards of living and housing and the continuous improvement of living conditions.
85. Land and housing policies impacting Palestinians in Israel are part of a broader policy towards the Palestinian population as a whole, aimed at striving towards a Jewish majority in all areas under Israeli control, reducing the possibility of geographical self-determination for the Palestinian people.
Individual criminal responsibility
86. The Commission has identified several Israeli ministers as likely bearing the most responsibility for the international crimes noted in the present report. The Ministers of Defence since October 2023, Yoav Gallant (until 7 November 2024) and subsequently Israel Katz, are responsible for actions of Israeli security forces in Gaza which amount to international crimes. The Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, and the Minister of Settlements and National Projects, Orit Strock, are jointly responsible for driving settlement construction and expansion in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, is responsible for the actions of police and prison authorities noted by the Commission in its previous report to the General Assembly. The Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is ultimately responsibility for the conduct of Israel in the whole of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. All six bear direct individual responsibility for establishing policies and taking actions noted in the present report that have killed and injured Palestinians, deliberately inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part and deepened the unlawful presence of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, including through security operations and channelling funds for settlements, farm outposts and settlement expansion.
The Commission also found that since October 2023, Israeli policies have demonstrated clear intent to forcibly transfer Palestinians, expand Jewish settlements, and annex the entire West Bank.
„Increasing violent attacks by settlers have resulted in the forcible displacement of communities and subsequent Judaization of areas of the West Bank,“ the report stated.
It also highlights military operations in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, which resulted in destruction of homes and infrastructure and displacement of residents – actions the Commission deems unjustified militarily and tantamount to collective punishment.
Yet such promises count for little at a time when Israel’s current government continues to bomb, shell, and starve Palestinians in Gaza, all while taking rapid steps toward formally annexing the West Bank. Nor has the opposition — neither its parliamentary representatives, like the Democrats, or the protest movement in the streets — shown the ability to turn growing discontent over the government’s handling of the war and abandonment of the hostages into a full-throated defense of Palestinians’ humanity.
Until they do, it is hard to imagine just how different the next government, whoever comprises it, will be when it comes to the prospect of peace and equality for all the people in this land.
(September 8, 2025)
Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for the PA to be wiped from the map, and the villages of those behind the attack in occupied East Jerusalem to be reduced to ruins in retribution, Al Jazeera reports.
(today)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed away from putting West Bank annexation on the government’s agenda after the United Arab Emirates warned that any such move would cross a “red line” and threaten the Abraham Accords.
The meeting, scheduled for Thursday, will instead address the deteriorating security situation in the territory as international attention turns toward possible recognition of a Palestinian state at the upcoming UN General Assembly.
(September 3, 2025)
Senior Emirati officials warned top Trump administration officials against Israeli moves to apply sovereignty over parts of the West Bank, a source familiar with the details of the discussions told The Jerusalem Post.
„This would destroy the Abraham Accords,“ the Emirati officials warned, adding: „Do not allow Israel to annex parts of the West Bank.“
RAMALLAH, September 2, 2025 (WAFA) – Israeli occupation authorities announced on Tuesday the seizure of 455.58 dunams of land belonging to the villages of Jit and Farata, east of Qalqilia, and Tell, west of Nablus, declaring them so-called “state land” as part of efforts to seize more Palestinian territory, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.
The commission affirmed in a statement that the new announcement targets the area where the Havat Gilad colonial outpost is located, established in 2003 on the lands of the three villages of Jit, Far‘ata, and Tal.
The occupation authorities aim through this seizure to regularize the status of a colonial outpost established in the area, Havat Gilad, which the occupation government announced its intention to regularize years ago.
With this seizure, the total land seized under the “state land” designation since the far-right government took office in early 2023 has risen to over 26,000 dunams, issued through 13 separate announcements.
Joint statement by:
foreign ministers of Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission
The decision by the Israeli Higher Planning Committee to approve plans for settlement construction in the E1 area, East of Jerusalem, is unacceptable and a violation of international law.
We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms.
Minister Smotrich says this plan will make a two-state solution impossible by dividing any Palestinian state and restricting Palestinian access to Jerusalem. This brings no benefits to the Israeli people. Instead, it risks undermining security and fuels further violence and instability, taking us further away from peace.
The Government of Israel still has an opportunity to stop the E1 plan going any further. We encourage them to urgently retract this plan.
Unilateral action by the Israeli government undermines our collective desire for security and prosperity in the Middle East. The Israeli government must stop settlement construction in line with UNSC Resolution 2334 and remove their restrictions on the finances of the Palestinian Authority.
Britain and France were among 21 countries to sign a joint statement on Thursday calling Israel’s approval of a major settlement project in the West Bank “unacceptable and a violation of international law.”
Israel approved the plans for the roughly 12-square-kilometre parcel of land known as E1 just east of Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“We condemn this decision and call for its immediate reversal in the strongest terms,” said the statement of foreign ministers, whose signatories also included Australia, Canada and Italy.
Israel on Wednesday approved a major settlement project in the West Bank, despite warnings from the international community that doing so threatens the viability of a future Palestinian state.
Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced work would start on a long-delayed settlement that would divide the West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, a move his office said would „bury“ the idea of a Palestinian state.
Israel claims it has attacked Syria to protect its Druze minority, but analysts say its primary goal is to “divide and weaken” the country while expanding its hegemony in the Middle East.
Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri, a Druze spiritual leader who has been critical of the new Syrian government, has been accused of leading the main armed anti-government groups in Sweida.
Following clashes with local Bedouin tribes that resulted in over 100 deaths, Syrian government soldiers entered Sweida on Tuesday with the claimed goal of enforcing a truce that was agreed upon with leaders of the Druze community. Witnesses, however, claimed that during a violent rampage across the city, government forces allied with the Bedouin to target Druze combatants and civilians. Earlier this evening, it was reported that the death toll had topped 300.
16 July 2025 20:05 BST
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Wednesday that a ceasefire could take hold in Syria within the next three to four hours, as Israeli military strikes continue to target Syrian government forces in Sweida and Damascus.
“By working together with the Americans, I hope that
16 July 2025 19:23 BST
The statements were made after fighting between Syrian government troops and local Druze fighters resumed in the southern city of Sweida hours following a ceasefire agreement.
Israel on Wednesday launched what it said were “dozens” of strikes across Syria, including in the capital, escalating a conflict with a fledgling government that was already grappling with domestic unrest in which scores of people have been killed.
Israel tied Wednesday’s strikes and others this week to that internal conflict, saying it was attacking forces of the new Islamist government to protect the Druze minority.
According to Haaretz, the plan involves the construction of 3,412 housing units across 12 square kilometres, north and west of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, which is illegal under international law.
(January 14, 2015)
Palästina kann seine Situation in Frieden und Unabhängigkeit nur verbessern, solange es zusammenhält und nicht den Fehler Indiens nach der Befreiung von der Gewaltherrschaft des Britischen Empire begeht. Heute stehen sich zwei Atommächte mehr oder weniger feindlich gegenüber, Indien und Pakistan, sowie das letztlich von Pakistan abgefallene Bangladesch.
Nicht ein multikulturelles, ein multiethnisches, ein multireligiöses Palästina, sondern ein interkulturelles, ein interethnisches, ein interreligiöses Palästina wird Bestand haben, welches Unterschiede nicht versucht wegzuassimilieren, zu ignorieren oder zu unterdrücken, sondern die eigenen Unterschiede stehen lässt, die eigene Vielfalt akzeptiert und einen Weg findet seine inneren Differenzen ohne Blutvergießen und nach allgemein akzeptierten Rechten und Regeln auszufechten, ohne das Recht des Stärkeren einreißen zu lassen.
Die Sympathie der Welt wird Palästina dabei sicher sein.
Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron have disavowed a proposal by five purported local „sheikhs“ to sever ties with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and establish an „emirate of Hebron“ which would recognise the state of Israel.
(February 9, 2020)
South Africa‘s Bantustans were designed to weaken and fragment the black population. Under Trump‘s plan, Palestine could face a similar fate.
Hebron’s sheikhs propose to leave the Palestinian Authority and join the Abraham Accords.
The strikes came after Druze clerics and armed factions reaffirmed their loyalty to Damascus. They urged the new authorities to appoint local officials to government posts in Sweida province, heartland of the Druze religious group.
Their statement followed fighting between Druze fighters and Syrian forces, including government-affiliated groups that killed more than 100 people in Jaramana and Sahnaya near Damascus and in Sweida, the Observatory said.
The conflict ignited around midnight Monday following the circulation of an audio recording on social media containing criticism of Islam‘s Prophet Muhammad, attributed to a Druze cleric. However, cleric Marwan Kiwan denied responsibility for the controversial audio in a social media video.
(April 29, 2025)
“With God’s help and the valor of your comrades-in-arms who continue to fight even now, we will end this campaign when Syria is dismantled, Hezbollah is severely beaten, Iran is stripped of its nuclear threat, Gaza is cleansed of Hamas and hundreds of thousands of Gazans are on their way out of it to other countries, our hostages are returned, some to their homes and some to the graves of Israel, and the State of Israel is stronger and more prosperous,” the far-right minister tells a gathering at the Eli Yeshiva.