Israeli military shoots to death 2 more Palestinians
Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in clashes near a flashpoint religious site in the occupied West Bank overnight on Wednesday, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The health ministry said Raid Hamdan, 21, and Zaid Nouri, 20, died ater being shot late on Tuesday by Israeli troops near the Joseph Tomb’s religious site close to the Palestinian city of Nablus.
The Israeli army said in a statement explosives were hurled from a vehicle as Jewish worshippers visited the site late on Tuesday. “Troops responded with live fire towards the vehicle.” There were no reports of injuries on the Israeli side.
The site has long been a source of tension in the Israel-palestinian conflict.
Late on Tuesday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian suspected of carrying out a weekend stabbing and shooting atack that let two Israelis dead near a West Bank setlement. The military says 19-year-old Omar Abu Leila was fatally shot when he opened fire on soldiers trying to arrest him.
The two-day manhunt for Abu Leila had raised tensions in Israel and the West Bank following a period of calm.
United Nations human rights investigator said that “Israel is depriving millions of Palestinians of access to a regular supply of clean water while stripping their land of minerals “in an apparent act of pillage.”
Michael Lynk, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said that Israel “continues full-steam with setlement expansion” in the West Bank, which the United Nations and many countries deem illegal. There are some 20-25,000 new setlers a year, he said.
He was addressing the UN Human Rights Council, whose debate Israel’s delegation boycotted due to what it considers a deep bias against it. “In his latest farcical report, Lynk stoops to a new low and (accuses) the Jewish State of stealing,” Israel’s mission in Geneva said in a statement to Reuters. It accused Lynk of being a “known Palestinian advocate”.
In a separate development, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s strongest election rival, former army general Benny Gantz, said he would seek peace with the Palestinians but stopped short of endorsing their goal for statehood.
Gantz, a centrist candidate, said in an interview with Hadashot TV news that Israel has a moral obligation to “strive for peace.”
“I will talk to anyone I can in order to advance a diplomatic solution,” Gantz said.
When asked whether the ultimate goal would be that of a Palestinian state, Gantz did not give a definitive answer although he did suggest that eventually Israel should separate from the Palestinians.
Palestinians want to establish a state in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, territories that Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. The last round of peace talks between the sides broke down in 2014.
The United States is widely expected to unveil a new peace proposal ater the April 9 Israeli election. The Trump administration has wavered over whether it would endorse a Palestinian state, saying the final outcome will be up to the sides to determine, but both sides will have to compromise.
The Palestinians on their part have boycoted the Trump administration since it announced it recognised occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and opened a new US embassy there last year. Washington has also cut hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to the Palestinians.
Gantz’s Blue and White party has slipped in opinion polls recently, although it still has a slight lead over Netanyahu’s Likud in most surveys. However, Netanyahu still appears likely to win the most support from allied parties, allowing him to form a coalition of right-wing and religious factions similar to one he now heads.
Ater the atorney-general announced on Feb.28 he plans to indict Netanyahu in three corruption cases, Gantz ruled out joining a Netanyahu government.
But in leaked recordings aired on Israeli Reshet News on Monday, Gantz said that things could change if Trump’s peace plan is put forward.
In Tuesday’s interview he said he would not join a Netanyahu government if charges are indeed filed against the prime minister.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM UN human rights investigator said that “Israel is depriving millions of Palestinians of access to a regular supply of clean water while stripping their land of minerals in an apparent act of pillage.”