Israel’s approval of new West Bank settlements has drawn strong reactions globally, with the EU and OIC warning the move could deepen tensions and weaken chances of a negotiated peace.
Israeli authorities are preventing dozens of families of Palestinian prisoners deported to Egypt from travelling from the West Bank, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club, Abdullah al-Zaghari, said Wednesday.
The latest attempt by far-right lawmakers in Israel’s parliament to push a bill applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank was, by all measures, a symbolic gesture.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz on Sunday ordered the military to prepare for a yearlong presence in refugee camps in the West Bank as Israel escalates the ongoing large-scale military campaign in the occupied Palestinian territory.
Yemen's Houthi forces fired a missile at Israel early on Tuesday, triggering sirens in wide areas, including Tel Aviv and some Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to an Israeli military statement.
Tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been flaring in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past three weeks.
Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are claimed by the Palestinians, in the 1967 Middle East war.
Dozens of Palestinian protestors were injured on Friday during clashes with Israeli soldiers near three West Bank cities, Palestinian medics and eyewitnesses said.
The statement called on the UN Security Council to take necessary measures to compel Israel to comply with international law
The statement warned that the expansion of settlements in the area of Bethlehem in the West Bank "will isolate Palestinian towns and villages from each other and turn them into isolated islands in an ocean of settlements".
