JERUSALEM: Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian near the barrier with the occupied West Bank on Sunday, while in Jerusalem a Palestinian stabbed an Israeli border police officer, adding to an upsurge in violence that has raised fears of a slide back into a wider Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The attacks came hours after Israeli forces caught two Palestinians who had snuck into Israel and killed three people in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish town of Elad on Israel’s Independence Day last Thursday.
Israel’s army said that the shooting of a Palestinian on Sunday occurred after “soldiers spotted a suspect who attempted to illegally cross the security fence” in the area of the West Bank town of Tulkarm.
“The soldiers operated to stop the suspect in accordance with standard operating procedures, using live fire,” according to an army spokesperson.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said the man was killed.
After the stabbing in Jerusalem on Sunday, police said border police officers at the scene shot the Palestinian attacker and that he and the victim were being treated for their wounds.
Separately, the killing of three people in Elad on Thursday had led to a three-day manhunt by Israeli forces for two axe-wielding assailants who had run through the town, some 15 km (nine miles) north of Tel Aviv.
The two men were captured on Sunday in a forest near Elad, the Israeli army said. They have been identified by Israel as residents of a village near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the West Bank.
Photos of the two, who appeared to be unhurt, and of Israeli security men with guns pointed at their hiding place, were carried by Israeli news websites after they were taken into custody.
Since March Palestinians and members of Israel’s Arab minority have killed 18 people, including three police officers and a security guard, in attacks in Israel and the West Bank that have mostly targeted civilians.
Israel has carried out arrest raids in Palestinian towns and villages which have often sparked clashes and brought the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the year to at least 41.
The casualties include armed members of militant groups, lone assailants and bystanders.
Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, praised the Elad assault. It said the attack was a response to Israeli actions at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem.
Over the past month, Palestinians and Israeli police have repeatedly clashed at the sensitive complex.
Palestinians and Jordan, the custodian of the site that is the third-holiest in Islam, accuse Israel of not doing enough to enforce a long-standing ban on non-Muslim prayer there, which Israel denies.
The compound is Judaism’s holiest site and the vestige of two ancient Jewish temples.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in a 1967 Middle East War. Palestinians seek these territories for a future state.

RIYADH: Nearly 1,000 mines planted by the Houthi militia in Yemen have been cleared by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) de-mining project Masam so far in May, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Sunday. 

Of the 998 explosive devices the de-mining team removed, 677 were anti-tank devices and 321 were unexploded ordnance.

Since the launch of the Masam project, as many as 336,891 mines have been dismantled across Yemen.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by KSrelief, seeks through the project to clear Yemeni lands of the mines that were randomly planted by the Houthi militia causing death and injury of innocent children, women, and the elderly, SPA said.

CAIRO: Egypt condemned Israeli authorities’ intentions to demolish a number of Palestinian villages in the Masafer Yatta area in the occupied West Bank, stressing on Saturday that “such practices undermine the chances of reaching a two-state solution and establishing a comprehensive and just peace in the region.”

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry expressed “great concern over the Israeli authorities’ intention to demolish a number of Palestinian villages in the Masafer Yatta area in the occupied West Bank, and the consequent risk of displacing thousands of Palestinians from those villages.”

The ministry also affirmed its rejection of reports about the plan to build around 4,000 new settlement units in the occupied Palestinian territories, stressing it represents “a flagrant violation of the rules of international law and the decisions of international legitimacy.”

Ambassador Ahmed Hafez, spokesperson for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry, affirmed “(the ministry’s) total condemnation of the settlement policy in the Palestinian territories, whether through building new settlements or expanding existing ones, as well as confiscating lands and displacing Palestinians.”

He stressed that “continuing such unilateral measures leads to an increase in tension and contributes to fueling the cycle of violence, as it undermines the chances of reaching a two-state solution and establishing comprehensive peace.”

TEHRAN: Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Iranian leaders in Tehran on Sunday, Iranian and Syrian media reported, marking his second trip to major wartime ally Iran since Syria’s civil war erupted in 2011.
Nour News, a website close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, reported that Assad met Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Ebrahim Raisi. It said the leaders praised the strong ties between their nations and vowed to boost relations further. Assad was reported to have left Tehran for Damascus later on Sunday.
“Everybody now looks at Syria as a power,” Khamenei told Assad in the meeting, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency, believed to be close to the country’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. “The respect and credibility of Syria is now much more than before.”
Assad, for his part, said that strong relations between Iran and Syria served as a bulwark against American and Israeli influence in the Middle East.
“America today is weaker than ever,” Syrian state news agency, SANA, quoted Assad as saying. “We should continue this track,” he added, praising Iran’s help in Syria’s “fight against terrorism.”
In an apparent reference to a recent string of deadly attacks in Israel by Palestinian assailants, Assad also said that the Palestinian cause has again captured the world’s attention “because of the sacrifices of the Palestinian resistance.”
Iranian media published photos of Assad shaking hands warmly with Khamenei and grinning beside Raisi.
Assad has rarely traveled abroad since his government’s crackdown on Syria’s civil unrest in 2011 led to a devastating civil war and made him a global pariah.
He has visited key patrons Russia and Iran, and made his first trip to the United Arab Emirates since the conflict earlier this year.
Tehran has given the Syrian government billions of dollars in aid and sent Iran-backed fighters to battle alongside his forces — assistance that, along with Russian air power, has helped turn the tide in Assad’s favor.
The Tehran visit marked Assad’s first trip to the Iranian capital in over two years. The visit was not announced beforehand.
Police were out in force at major thoroughfares and intersections in Tehran on Sunday.

JINBA, West Bank: Everything here is makeshift, a result of decades of uncertainty. Homes are made from tin and plastic sheets, water is trucked in and power is obtained from batteries or a few solar panels.

The lives of thousands of Palestinians in a cluster of Bedouin communities in the southern West Bank have been on hold for more than four decades, ever since the land they cultivated and lived on was declared a military firing and training zone by Israel.

Since that decision in early 1981, residents of the Masafer Yatta region have weathered demolitions, property seizures, restrictions, disruptions of food and water supplies as well as the lingering threat of expulsion.

That threat grew significantly this week after Israel’s Supreme Court upheld a long-standing expulsion order against eight of the 12 Palestinian hamlets forming Masafer Yatta — potentially leaving at least 1,000 people homeless.

On Friday, some residents said they are determined to stay on the land. The verdict came after a more than two-decade-long legal struggle by Palestinians to remain in their homes. Israel has argued that the residents only use the area for seasonal agriculture and that they had been offered a compromise that would have given them occasional access to the land.

The Palestinians say that if implemented, the ruling opens the way for the eviction of all the 12 communities that have a population of 4,000 people, mostly Bedouin who rely on animal herding and desert agriculture.

The residents of Jinba, one of the hamlets, said on Friday that they have opposed any compromise because they have lived in the area long before Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war.

Issa Abu Eram was born in a cave in the rugged mountainous terrain 48 years ago and has endured a tough life because building is banned here.

In the winter, he and his family members live in a cave. In the summer, they stay in caravans near the cave. His goats are a source of income, and on Friday, he had laid out dozens of balls of hardened goat milk yogurt on the roof of a shack to dry.

He said his children grew up with the threat of expulsion hanging over them. They are attending a makeshift school in Jinba, with the oldest son now in 12th grade.

“He did not live in any other place except Jinba. How are you going to convince him … to live somewhere else?” he said.

The Palestinian leadership condemned the Israeli Supreme Court ruling, which was handed down on Wednesday — when most of Israel was shut down for the country’s Independence Day.

Nabil Abu Rdeineh, a spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas, said the removal order “amounts to forced displacement and ethnic cleansing, in violation of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

Also on Friday, Israel’s interior minister said Israel is set to advance plans for the construction of 4,000 settler homes in the occupied West Bank. If approved, it would be the biggest advancement of settlement plans since the Biden administration took office. The White House is opposed to settlement growth because it further erodes the possibility of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.