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Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Gunman in West Bank Clash

People inspect the site where three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jenin, 06 August 2023. (EPA)
People inspect the site where three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jenin, 06 August 2023. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Kill Palestinian Gunman in West Bank Clash

People inspect the site where three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jenin, 06 August 2023. (EPA)
People inspect the site where three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces near the West Bank city of Jenin, 06 August 2023. (EPA)

Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian gunman during clashes that followed a military arrest raid in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the Islamic Jihad armed group said. 

The Israeli military said its forces came under fire from suspects who threw explosives at soldiers in the confrontations near the flashpoint city of Jenin and that the soldiers "responded with live fire and identified a hit." 

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of a 17-year-old there. Islamic Jihad said he was a member of the group and gave his age as 18. 

In the Palestinian city Hebron, Israeli security forces arrested two Palestinians who they said had carried out a drive-by shooting that killed an Israeli woman on Monday while a search for another gunman who killed two Israelis in the village Huwara further north on Saturday was still going on. 

The military said it arrested a total of 32 Palestinian suspects overnight between Monday and Tuesday. 

Violence in the West Bank has worsened over the past 15 months with frequent Israeli raids, Palestinian street attacks and retribution assaults by Jewish settlers. 

Prospects of reviving US-brokered peace talks that aimed to establish a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, remain dim almost a decade after their collapse. 

Israel captured the West Bank in a 1967 war and has since built dozens of settlements there that are considered illegal by most countries, a view Israel disputes, with its military in control of more than half the territory. 

The Palestinians have limited self-rule in the West Bank and remain split between a Western-backed administration and armed Hamas movement that rejects coexistence with Israel, while many in Israel's current government reject Palestinian statehood.  

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Arab World

Heavy Rains Flood Khartoum Streets, Exposing Decomposed Bodies

A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Heavy Rains Flood Khartoum Streets, Exposing Decomposed Bodies

A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)
A resident attempts to drain floodwaters outside home in Omdurman (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Torrential rains battered several parts of Sudan’s Khartoum state this week, flooding residential neighborhoods and streets, disrupting movement, and sweeping away war debris, including decomposed corpses believed to belong to paramilitary fighters.

The rainfall began as sanitation workers were carrying out maintenance on stormwater drains. But before completing their task, the downpour caught them off guard, forcing them to begin draining the water with basic tools already in use.

Local authorities said residents in the East Nile district reported seeing decomposed bodies swept into drainage canals. Officials suspect the corpses may be those of fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which controlled swathes of the capital during its year-long war with the Sudanese army.

The RSF had held large parts of Khartoum since conflict erupted on April 15, 2023. But by March this year, the army claimed to have regained full control of the city. Since then, thousands of displaced families have returned home, according to state authorities, with more returning each day.

This year’s rainy season arrives amid the devastation of war, which has crippled already fragile infrastructure, particularly flood drainage systems. Even before the conflict, seasonal rains often caused widespread destruction in Khartoum, damaging homes and public facilities and resulting in casualties.

Despite extensive water pooling in open areas, Sudan’s Civil Defense Authority reported no fatalities or property losses. “Water was drained naturally, without any intervention from Civil Defense teams,” said Major General Qureshi, deputy director of emergency operations, in remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat.

Qureshi added that his teams remain on high alert, as a precaution, although Nile water levels remain stable.

Residents attempted to clear water from their homes by removing weeds and waste blocking drainage channels.

“During the RSF's control of the city, we tried to dig small trenches to divert the rainwater toward the main drains,” said resident Mohamed Elias. “But the blocked drains caused water to stagnate for months, leading to insect infestations and disease.”

Although thousands have returned to Khartoum, the national government has not fully re-established itself in the capital, which it fled in favor of Port Sudan, a Red Sea city now serving as a temporary seat of power. Khartoum’s governor, Ahmed Othman, previously told Asharq Al-Awsat that the government’s return to the capital would be gradual.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said over one million displaced Sudanese have returned to their areas of origin across the country, including in Khartoum.