Israeli Army Mounts Rare Raid into Palestinian City of Ramallah, Clashes Ensue

TOPSHOT - This picture shows a battery of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system in the southern city of Ashdod on May 13, 2023.(Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This picture shows a battery of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system in the southern city of Ashdod on May 13, 2023.(Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
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Israeli Army Mounts Rare Raid into Palestinian City of Ramallah, Clashes Ensue

TOPSHOT - This picture shows a battery of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system in the southern city of Ashdod on May 13, 2023.(Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)
TOPSHOT - This picture shows a battery of Israel's Iron Dome air defense system in the southern city of Ashdod on May 13, 2023.(Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Clashes erupted after Israeli forces mounted a rare raid into the Palestinian city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank early on Thursday, in what the military said was an operation to demolish the house of an assailant.

A Reuters witness said a large military convoy arrived in downtown Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian government, leading hundreds of Palestinians to gather in the area.

Some Palestinian youth hurled stones at the Israeli forces, who fired live bullets, stun grenades and tear gas at the crowd, the witness said. Trash bins that were set on fire blocked roads as ambulance sirens wailed.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least six people were transferred to hospital for treatment, including three who sustained gunshot wounds.

The Israeli military said its forces were operating in Ramallah "to demolish the residence of the terrorist who carried out the bombing attack in Jerusalem last November".

The twin blasts killed two people, including an Israeli-Canadian teenager, and wounded at least 14 others in what police said were explosions of improvised bombs that were planted at bus stops near the city exit and in a junction leading to a settlement.

"The demolition of the homes of fighters is a collective punishment that falls under the war crimes committed by the occupation against our people," said Abdel Fattah Dola of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

Israel has said the policy of demolishing homes of perpetrators is both punitive and a deterrence to potential attackers.

Hours earlier the US envoy to Palestinians, Hady Amr, met with senior Palestinian official Hussein Al-Sheikh.

Violence in the West Bank, among territories where Palestinians seek statehood, has risen during the past year. Israel has intensified its military raids amid a spate of street attacks carried out by Palestinians in its cities.

The Palestinian health ministry said at least 158 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since January. Israel's foreign ministry said 20 Israelis and two foreign nationals have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the same period.



UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
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UNRWA Lebanon Says Not Impacted by US Aid Freeze or New Israeli Law

 Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)
Head of UNRWA in Lebanon Dorothee Klaus speaks during a press conference in her offices in Beirut, Lebanon January 29, 2025. (Reuters)

The director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon said on Wednesday that the agency had not been affected by US President Donald Trump's halt to US foreign aid funding or by an Israeli ban on its operations.

"UNRWA currently is not receiving any US funding so there is no direct impact of the more recent decisions related to the UN system for UNRWA," Dorothee Klaus told reporters at UNRWA's field office in Lebanon.

US funding to UNRWA was suspended last year until March 2025 under a deal reached by US lawmakers and after Israel accused 12 of the agency's 13,000 employees in Gaza of participating in the deadly Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack that triggered the Gaza war.

The UN has said it had fired nine UNRWA staff who may have been involved and said it would investigate all accusations made.

Klaus said that UNRWA Lebanon had also placed four staff members on administrative leave as it investigated allegations they had breached the UN principle of neutrality.

One UNRWA teacher had already been suspended last year and a Hamas commander in Lebanon - killed in September in an Israeli strike - was found to have had an UNRWA job.

Klaus also said there was "no direct impact" on the agency's Lebanon operations from a new Israeli law banning UNRWA operations in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and that "UNRWA will continue fully operating in Lebanon."

The law, adopted in October, bans UNRWA's operation on Israeli land - including East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed in a move not recognized internationally - and contact with Israeli authorities from Jan. 30.

UNRWA provides aid, health and education services to millions in the Palestinian territories and neighboring Arab countries of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan.

Its commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini said on Tuesday that UNRWA has been the target of a "fierce disinformation campaign" to "portray the agency as a terrorist organization."