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US to Test its Palestinian Dual-nationals' Israeli Access in July

Passengers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport awaiting the verification of their passports (archive - AFP)
Passengers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport awaiting the verification of their passports (archive - AFP)
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US to Test its Palestinian Dual-nationals' Israeli Access in July

Passengers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport awaiting the verification of their passports (archive - AFP)
Passengers arriving at Ben Gurion Airport awaiting the verification of their passports (archive - AFP)

The United States will test Palestinian-Americans' freedom of travel in Israel next month as part of preparations for proposed US visa exemptions for Israelis, an official briefed on the preparations said on Monday.

Israel has satisfied some conditions for the US Visa Waiver Program (VWP), to which it hopes to be admitted by October, Reuters said.

What remains is to demonstrate reciprocal access for Palestinian-Americans at Israel's borders and to the occupied West Bank.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen told Ynet TV on Sunday that a "pilot program" to keep the country's VWP candidacy on track would be launched in mid-July. He did not elaborate.

An official briefed on the preparations said the pilot will entail a 30- to 45-day period during which US delegates will keep tabs on Palestinian-American travel through Ben-Gurion Airport and across West Bank checkpoints.

That could put fresh strains on Israeli forces amid violence in the West Bank, among the territories where Palestinians' statehood hopes have festered amid an almost decade-old impasse in US-sponsored peace talks.

The Biden administration has also locked horns with Israel's government over Jewish settlement policies in the West Bank.

The pilot will test access not only for US-domiciled Palestinian-Americans but also for those based in the West Bank.

"If you're a Palestinian-American living in Ramallah, this means you can spend up to 90 days in Tel Aviv (on an Israeli entry visa)," the official, who declined to be identified by name or nationality, told Reuters.

Asked how it would accommodate the pilot, the Israeli military referred Reuters to Israel's Interior Ministry, which did not immediately respond.

In an estimate that it says is based in part on US census data, the Arab American Institute Foundation puts the number of Palestinian-descended Americans at between 122,500 and 220,000.

Between 45,000 and 60,000 of them are in the West Bank, the official briefed on the VWP preparations said, adding that the pilot will not apply to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, where a small number of Palestinian-Americans live.

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Austria Says Eight of Its UNIFIL Troops in Lebanon Injured in Rocket Attack

A Lebanese army soldier stands near UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) vehicles in Marjeyoun, near the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon October 29, 2024. (Reuters)
A Lebanese army soldier stands near UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) vehicles in Marjeyoun, near the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon October 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Austria Says Eight of Its UNIFIL Troops in Lebanon Injured in Rocket Attack

A Lebanese army soldier stands near UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) vehicles in Marjeyoun, near the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon October 29, 2024. (Reuters)
A Lebanese army soldier stands near UN peacekeepers (UNIFIL) vehicles in Marjeyoun, near the border with Israel, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, southern Lebanon October 29, 2024. (Reuters)

Eight Austrian soldiers belonging to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) sustained superficial injuries in a rocket strike on the force's headquarters in Naqoura, Austria's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

UNIFIL is stationed in southern Lebanon to monitor hostilities along the demarcation line with Israel, an area that has seen more than a year of fighting that turned into fierce clashes this month between Israeli troops and Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters.

"We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately," the ministry said in a statement, adding that it was not clear where the attack came from and none of the soldiers needed urgent medical care.

UNIFIL later issued a statement saying the rocket, which set a vehicle workshop ablaze, was fired from north of the site, "likely by Hezbollah or an affiliated group", and that it had opened an investigation.

Austria contributes about 180 soldiers to the 10,000-strong force. They are part of a "Multi Role Logistic Unit" that performs roles like transporting goods and personnel, repairing vehicles, supplying fuel and firefighting.

The strike comes amid heavy fighting between Hezbollah and Israel in border areas where Israel has been making ground incursions and after a night of Israeli strikes focused on the eastern Bekaa Valley that killed more than 60 people, according to Lebanese authorities.

Hezbollah on Tuesday said it targeted with rockets and artillery Israeli forces southeast of the southern town of Khiyam, the deepest the group has acknowledged Israeli forces operating in Lebanon since ground operations began.

UNIFIL said earlier this month it had come under several "deliberate" attacks by Israeli forces and efforts to help civilians in villages in the war zone were being hampered by Israeli shelling.

Israel says UN forces provide a human shield for Hezbollah and has told UNIFIL to evacuate peacekeepers from southern Lebanon for their own safety - a request that it has refused.

Five peacekeepers had already been injured since the start of Israeli ground operation in Lebanon on Oct. 1. UNIFIL positions have been affected at least 20 times, including by direct fire and an incident on Oct. 13 when two Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a UNIFIL base, according to the UN.

Israel has ramped up its air strikes across Lebanon over the last month, saying it is targeting Hezbollah. Lebanese officials, rights groups and residents of affected towns say the strikes are indiscriminate.

More than 2,700 Lebanese have been killed and 1.2 million Lebanese displaced. Israel says around 50 soldiers and civilians have been killed and some 60,000 residents of northern Israeli communities displaced.