Center East disaster reside: Rafah mayor warns areas of metropolis nonetheless too harmful for Palestinians to return

Jenin has been a spotlight of Israeli raids into the occupied West Financial institution all through Israel’s 15 month conflict on Gaza. The Palestinian well being ministry says greater than 800 individuals have been killed in Israeli raids since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 assault on southern Israel, during which about 1,200 individuals had been killed and 251 taken hostage.

The Jenin refugee camp is house to about 14,000 individuals, most of whom are descendants of the Palestinian individuals dispossessed of their land when Israel was created in 1948.

My colleagues Ruth Michaelson, Sufian Taha and Lorenzo Tondo have written in regards to the persevering with lethal Israeli assault on the West Financial institution metropolis of Jenin, taking place amid the ceasefire with Hamas. Right here is an extract from their report:

Israeli officers have labelled the newest escalation within the West Financial institution, codenamed Iron Wall, which started simply days after a ceasefire in Gaza got here into impact, as a part of a shift within the goals of the conflict that started in October 2023, after an assault by Palestinian militants on Israeli cities and kibbutzim across the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army mentioned it was working in Jenin to focus on Palestinian militants within the refugee camp, with the Israel Protection Forces spokesperson, Lt Col Nadav Shoshani, telling reporters in a briefing that the operation was meant to forestall militants “from regrouping” and attacking Israeli civilians.

65-year-old Saleh Ammar, who fled the Jouret al-Dhahab neighbourhood contained in the Jenin refugee camp, accused forces affiliated to the Palestinian Authority (PA) of taking pictures at residents of the refugee camp earlier than Israeli forces entered, to help their assault. The PA launched its personal assault on the camp in December, meant to focus on militias that oppose its rule.

“I am so upset by the Palestinian Authority invasion – they burned the houses, installed snipers on the rooftops and opened fire randomly,” he mentioned. “This continued until Israeli forces entered the camp … we are living between two fires.”

Israeli forces have detained a minimum of 25 Palestinians from the occupied West Financial institution, together with former prisoners, in accordance with an announcement by the Fee of Detainees and Ex-Detainees.

The detentions, reported by Palestinian information company Wafa, happened throughout the areas of Tulkarm, Hebron, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem, because the Israeli army continues its army operations within the governorates of Jenin and Tulkarm.

As per the phrases of the delicate ceasefire settlement between Hamas and Israel. which got here into impact on 19 January, Israeli forces have withdrawn from Rafah’s metropolis centre within the southern Gaza Strip. Nonetheless, the town’s mayor has urged displaced Palestinians searching for to return to the devastated metropolis to train warning as Israeli troopers stay stationed alongside the Philadelphi Hall – the 9-mile-long (14km) strip of land alongside the Gaza-Egypt border.

The Israeli army has warned civilians to remain away from the realm inside 700 metres (765 yards) of the border, labelling it as a “red zone”.

Rafah’s mayor, Ahmed al-Soufi, has instructed Al Jazeera that the town stays “extremely dangerous” even exterior of this designated zone, saying it’ll keep this fashion till the entire withdrawal of Israeli forces.

“Access to the southern half of the city near the border axis is unavailable,” he mentioned. “Although the northwestern, northern, and eastern areas are relatively safer due to their distance from the axis, they are still vulnerable” to Israeli firepower.

He mentioned displaced individuals mustn’t rush again to the town, particularly its central and southern areas, which he describes as “devastated” and missing in primary “living conditions”.

Relentless Israeli bombardments through the conflict destroyed a lot of the southern metropolis of Rafah, the place greater than one million displaced Palestinians and most worldwide support staff sheltered through the first half of the assault on Gaza. An Israeli assault on Rafah final yr led to an emptying of the town as individuals sought shelter elsewhere within the strip. Many properties and retailers had been destroyed in subsequent Israeli assaults, with healthcare amenities, water and electrical energy methods badly broken. The Israeli army mentioned it was conducting focused strikes towards Hamas.

Now turning to information concerning Syria. Reuters is reporting that Russia’s deputy overseas minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, will meet the nation’s new rulers this week in Damascus, citing two sources. If the journey goes forward it will mark the primary go to by Russian officers since Moscow’s ally Bashar al-Assad was toppled by the fast insurgent offensive lats month.

It isn’t clear what the agenda for the assembly is, however Bogdanov has beforehand mentioned Russia hoped to take care of its two bases in Syria: a naval base in Tartous and the Hmeimim base close to the port metropolis of Latakia.

However this month, Syria’s new administration, led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the pinnacle of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, cancelled a contract with Russian agency STG Stroytransgaz to handle and function the Tartous port, in accordance with three Syrian businessmen and media stories. The contract had been signed underneath Assad.

Listed below are among the newest pictures being despatched to us over the newswires after a whole lot of 1000’s of Palestinian individuals returned to northern Gaza on Monday after Israel opened army checkpoints that had divided the strip for greater than a yr:

A civilian was killed and several other others had been injured yesterday night after Israeli plane struck a bulldozer west of central Gaza’s al-Nuseirat refugee camp, Palestinian information company Wafa is reporting.

The bulldozer was reportedly making an attempt to free a car trapped within the space when it was hit. The motive force was killed within the Israeli airstrike, in accordance with Wafa.

The suggestion by the US president, Donald Trump, that Gaza’s Palestinian inhabitants could possibly be “cleaned out” and moved to Egypt and Jordan has been broadly condemned each by American allies within the west and international locations within the Center East.

My colleague Peter Beaumont has written an evaluation piece on Trump’s incoherent concepts about Center East politics, as mirrored in his most up-to-date remarks on Gaza, which had been rejected by Jordan and Egypt and condemned by Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

Here’s a snippet of his story:

Over the many years for the reason that Six Day conflict in 1967, when Israeli forces first captured the Gaza Strip, which had been underneath Egyptian army rule, Israeli officers and commentators have periodically pushed the notion that Palestinians in Gaza could possibly be resettled in Egypt.

Most just lately that notion was floated in a leaked paper by Israel’s intelligence ministry – which prepares research and coverage papers reasonably than representing the intelligence businesses – a number of weeks into the conflict in Gaza.

That “concept” paper really useful that Israel “evacuate the civilian population to Sinai” then create “a sterile zone of several kilometres … within Egypt” that will stop return.

If the concept is a non-starter, it’s as a result of Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and Israel and has a peace treaty with Israel, has lengthy let or not it’s recognized that it completely rejects any efforts by Israel to subcontract the issue of Gaza to Cairo, whether or not via pressured switch of the inhabitants or in any other case.

Hiya and welcome to the Guardian’s reside protection of the newest occasions within the Center East.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to fulfill US President Donald Trump in Washington as early as subsequent week, in accordance with stories, as a whole lot of 1000’s of Palestinian individuals made their means again into northern Gaza on Monday.

Ought to Netanyahu’s journey come collectively in that timeframe, he could possibly be the primary overseas chief to fulfill with Trump on the White Home since his inauguration final week. Citing two US officers acquainted with the preliminary plans, the Related Press stories that particulars could possibly be organized when Trump’s particular Center East envoy, Steve Witkoff, travels to Israel this week for talks with Netanyahu and different Israeli officers.

Axios, which first reported the planning for the journey, mentioned that it’s a gesture from Trump to Netanyahu for agreeing to the Gaza hostage-release and ceasefire deal. Israeli officers instructed Axios that Netanyahu’s arrival in Washington relies upon totally on whether or not his well being has recovered after current prostate surgical procedure.

Trump teased the upcoming go to in a dialog with reporters aboard Air Power One on Monday, however didn’t present scheduling particulars. “I’m going to be speaking with Bibi Netanyahu in the not too distant future,” he mentioned.

Netanyahu’s spokesperson Omer Dostri mentioned the Israeli chief has but to obtain an official invitation to the White Home.

Trump additionally reiterated his want to maneuver Palestinians from Gaza to so-called “safer” places akin to Egypt or Jordan, in feedback that triggered longstanding Palestinian fears of being completely pushed from their properties.

These feedback echoed those he revamped the weekend when he proposed that enormous numbers of Palestinian individuals ought to go away Gaza with a view to “just clean out” the entire strip. His suggestion was denounced by some as being a proposal for ethnic cleaning.

Requested about these feedback, Trump instructed reporters on Monday night that he would “like to get them living in an area where they can live without disruption and revolution and violence so much.”

“You know, when you look at the Gaza Strip, it’s been hell for so many years… there’s always been violence associated with it,” he mentioned.

In different developments:

• US secretary of state Marco Rubio held a name with Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday, two days after a suggestion by Donald Trump that Jordan and Egypt ought to take extra Palestinians from Gaza. “The Secretary and King Abdullah discussed implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, the release of hostages, and creating a pathway for security and stability in the region,” the state division mentioned in an announcement. Trump’s weekend remarks weren’t talked about.

• Lebanese officers say firing by Israeli troops has killed two individuals and injured 17 within the second day of lethal protests in southern Lebanon. Residents displaced by the 14-month conflict between Israel and Hezbollah on Monday once more tried to return to villages the place Israeli troops stay. On Sunday, 24 individuals had been killed and greater than 130 injured when Israeli troops fired at protesters.

• Israel mentioned on Monday that it had arrested two Israelis suspected of spying for Iran, together with one accused of handing the nation categorised info obtained throughout his army service.

• Tens of 1000’s of Palestinian refugees in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem had been set to lose training, healthcare and different companies offered by UN company Unrwa as an Israeli ban on the organisation takes impact on Thursday.

• Eight of the 33 hostages who had been to be launched underneath the primary section of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas are lifeless, Israel has confirmed. It means 18 hostages are actually as a result of be launched within the coming weeks as seven individuals have already been freed by Hamas.

• A Hamas delegation has arrived in Cairo to debate the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire deal, the group mentioned in an announcement.

• The EU’s overseas ministers have agreed to a “roadmap” to ease present sanctions on Syria, a transfer welcomed by the nation’s authorities.