Tag: Benjamin Netanyahu

Tensions have soared since the bodies were found, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blaming Hamas and warning it “will pay,” while militants in Hamas-controlled Gaza have stepped up rocket attacks, drawing Israeli retaliatory airstrikes and risking a wider conflict.

Eyal Yifrah, 19, Gilad Shaar, 16, and Naftali Fraenkel, a 16-year-old with dual Israeli-American citizenship, were abducted on June 12 while hitchhiking home from the Jewish seminaries where they were studying near the West Bank city of Hebron. The teens’ bodies were found Monday evening after 18 days of intense searches.

A Defense official said based on the investigation that the teens were shot soon after they were abducted. He spoke anonymously in line with protocol as the investigation is still ongoing.

Hamas, which has kidnapped Israelis in the past, has praised the abduction of the teenagers but not taken responsibility for it.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri warned Israel against any broad offensive against the group, saying it would “open the gates of hell” on Israel.

Palestinians gather around the body of Yosuf abu Zaghah, 20, who was killed by Israeli troops in the …

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon issued a statement Tuesday vowing to find those behind the killings. “We see Hamas responsible for the kidnappings and murders..

 

Israeli police yesterday forcibly broke up up a three-day desert sit-in by hundreds of African migrants who bolted a detention center to march toward the Egyptian border, where they were prevented from leaving by Israeli soldiers.

The march and sit-in marked a new defiance of Israeli government policy, which recently began ordering African migrants who entered the country illegally years ago to leave work and homes in Israeli cities and report to the Holot desert detention camp. Photographs uploaded to Twitter by human rights activists showed police dragging migrants to buses.

Though the government has promised to consider the Africans’ requests for political asylum, the migrants contend no action is being taken and that indefinite detention at Holot is being used to pressure them to accept so-called “voluntary departure’’ packages to relocate to third-party African countries. They have asked the United Nations to intervene on their behalf.

The plight of African refugee seekers in Israel, who have been called “infiltrators” by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, has become a high profile human rights issue for his government, since a government that views itself as driven by morality – and a refuge for people fleeing oppression – has used increasingly harsh tactics against asylum seekers. Senior Israeli officials say most of the African migrants are seeking economic opportunity, not freedom from oppression.

‘There is no medical care, there is no decent food, and there’s nowhere to go. It’s like a prison, but they tell people it’s an open facility,’’ said Hassan Shakur, a 27-year old migrant from Sudan who spoke by telephone from the border area as police surrounded the protesters.

Shortly after he spoke, an Israeli police officer asked the refugees to get onto buses and return to Holot, or face mounted police and water cannon who would force them back. “Let’s not clash,” said the officer, according to a video uploaded to Facebook by Israeli activists.

 

The Africans, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea, say they are refugees, while Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government considers them threats to Israel’s national character.

The Holot camp was opened earlier this year and the government calls it a “residence” for African migrants and says they are allowed to come and go. However, the facility is located about a one hour drive from the nearest city, operated by the Israeli prison service, and inmates are required to be present for three roll calls a day and sleep at the facility.

The demonstration at the border was the latest in a string of protests by the Holot inmates against their detention. In recent weeks leaders of the demonstrations have been transferred to a full-fledged prison nearby as punishment.

Africans ordered to Holot have said they faced pressure by prison service employees at Holot to agree to voluntary departure packages, which consists of several thousand dollar stipends and a free plane ticket to Uganda or Rwanda. The migrants claim that those who return to Africa aren’t given residency visas in the new country and risk repatriation to their homelands.

 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Palestinian president he expects his help in finding three Israelis believed kidnapped in the West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu telephoned Mahmoud Abbas amid an intensive search for the teenagers missing since Thursday.

Israel blames Hamas, and has arrested dozens of Palestinians and Hamas officials. Hamas denies involvement.

Mr Abbas condemned the “kidnapping of three Israeli boys and… Israeli violations” since they went missing.

Palestinian medics say a 19-year-old Palestinian was shot dead during clashes near Ramallah, which erupted after soldiers conducted house-to-house searches on Sunday night.

The BBC’s Yolande Knell drives down the road where the teenagers went missing, and talks to young Israelis hitching a lift

They said Ahmad Arafat died after being shot in the chest in the Jalazoun refugee camp.

The Israeli military said it was investigating the report.

Israeli forces have arrested 150 Palestinians, including leading Hamas members, to try to glean information on the youths’ whereabouts.

Palestinian parliament Speaker Aziz Dweik, who is a member of Hamas, was among those arrested overnight.

The teenagers’ disappearance has triggered one the most intensive Israeli search operations in the West Bank for years.

Naftali Frenkel and Gilad Shaar, who are both 16, and 19-year-old Eyal Yifrach went missing at a junction near the city of Hebron as they hitchhiked their way home.

Naftali Frenkel holds US-Israeli citizenship.

Yesterday, Mr Netanyahu told President Abbas he expected him to help find the youths and apprehend the kidnappers.

“The Hamas kidnappers came from territory under Palestinian Authority control and returned to territory under Palestinian Authority control. This incident exposes the true face of the terrorism that we are fighting against,” Mr Netanyahu said.

The prime minister said the incident was the “consequences of the partnership with Hamas”, with whom Mr Abbas signed a unity deal in April after years of division.

Hamas is committed to Israel’s destruction and is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US, EU and other countries.

 

 

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called Mr Netanyahu’s accusations “silly” and said the arrests were “aimed at breaking the will of the Islamist movement in the West Bank”.

The teenagers’ disappearance is seen as the biggest strain on relations between the two sides since a new Palestinian government, backed by Hamas, was sworn in earlier this month.

Palestinian officials have said they are co-operating with the search – a move Hamas has condemned.

Israeli police have clashed with Palestinian protesters on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

A police spokesman said about 20 youths threw stones and fireworks at officers from the holy site, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary).

Police then entered the compound and arrested three people, he added.

The unrest came as the Israeli parliament prepared to debate a motion calling on Israel to “realise its sovereignty over the Temple Mount”.

Moshe Feiglin, a right-wing member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party who tabled the motion, wants restrictions on Jewish visitors to be lifted. They are currently barred from praying or engaging in other religious activities there.

Although no vote was expected, the the Islamic Waqf – the trust that has overseen the site since Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war – expressed concern and said there had been “Jordanian contacts with Israel to prevent any moves” affecting its status.

The Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif compound, in the Old City in East Jerusalem, covers an area of 35 acres (14 hectares).

It is holy to Jews because it is the site of the First and Second Temple in ancient times. It is known in Jewish tradition as the “abode of God’s presence”.

It is also of deep religious, political and national significance to Palestinians and to Muslims around the world, housing the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque.

The Palestinian protesters were said to have gathered there on Tuesday morning because of rumours that Jewish extremists were planning to raise the Israeli flag.

When Israeli police arrived to open the Moughrabi, or Moors’, Gate just after 07:30 (05:30 GMT), they were attacked by the protesters, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

The officers responded by storming the compound and firing stun grenades and tear gas.

Three protesters were arrested, several others were treated for tear-gas inhalation and two police officers were lightly injured, Mr Rosenfeld added. One report cited Palestinian medics as saying 15 protesters had been hurt by rubber bullets, but Mr Rosenfeld denied that any were fired.