Israeli forces killed a Palestinian security officer during clashes in the city of Jenin, a hotspot in the occupied West Bank, on Monday (29), the Palestinian faction Fatah said in a statement.
The Israeli military said its forces came under heavy Palestinian fire as they sought the arrest of security suspects in Jenin and returned fire on the gunmen.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party identified the official as Ashraf Sheikh Ibrahim, saying he died “while facing aggression and attack on the city of Jenin by the occupation”.
The militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, associated with Fatah, claimed him as a member.
Elsewhere in the West Bank on Monday, Jewish settlers opened a seminar at a settler outpost, prompting Palestinian condemnation and a reiteration of US concern.
In a video posted to social media, settler leader Yossi Dagan recited a Jewish blessing at the entrance to the Homesh seminary school, a large white prefabricated hut on top of a hill in the West Bank.
“With God’s help… there will be many new settlements in northern Samaria,” he said, referring to the West Bank by its biblical name. The new school was moved from privately owned Palestinian land to a new location on the same hilltop, some 150 meters away.
Echoing the US response last week, a State Department spokesperson said Washington was “deeply concerned” about the Israeli government’s recent order allowing its citizens to establish a permanent presence at the Homesh outpost, calling it inconsistent with previous Israeli commitments.
“Settlement expansion undermines the geographic viability of a two-state solution, exacerbates tensions and further undermines trust between the parties,” the spokesperson said.
Yesh Din, an Israeli rights group representing some of the Palestinian landowners, said that in its new location the seminary obstructs access to its properties.
more violence
US-led peace talks aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza stalled in 2014 and show little sign of recovery, and violence between Israelis and Palestinians has escalated in the past year.
Most countries consider Israel’s settlements illegal – a view Israel contests. Palestinians say they consume the land they want for a future state and cite growing settler violence.
Abbas said Homesh must be removed. “Declarations of condemnation are no longer enough in the face of the extremist (Israeli) right-wing government,” said its spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh.
In an attempt to quell international concern, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel has no intention of building new settlements as its religiously nationalist government has pledged to reinforce existing ones.
Spokespersons for Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich did not immediately respond to the reporter’s requests for comment on whether any of them had authorized the establishment of Homesh’s new seminary.
“I think there are times when it’s preferable to talk less and do more,” Smotrich told reporters at a meeting of his pro-settler Jewish Zionist party, when asked who was behind the Homesh decision.
Last week, Smotrich, who wields some powers in the West Bank, said Homesh had been officially added to the settlement council lands to draw up a new building plan for the seminary school.
(Reporting by Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams and Ali Sawafta; Additional reporting by Henriette Chacar and Matt Spetalnick)
Source: CNN Brasil
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