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Israeli Police Say 4 Arrested in Settler Attack on Palestinians

A Palestinian man stands near a vehicle destroyed during an Israeli settlers' attack in the village of Jeit, near Qalqilya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 16, 2024. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
A Palestinian man stands near a vehicle destroyed during an Israeli settlers' attack in the village of Jeit, near Qalqilya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 16, 2024. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
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Israeli Police Say 4 Arrested in Settler Attack on Palestinians

A Palestinian man stands near a vehicle destroyed during an Israeli settlers' attack in the village of Jeit, near Qalqilya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 16, 2024. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta
A Palestinian man stands near a vehicle destroyed during an Israeli settlers' attack in the village of Jeit, near Qalqilya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank August 16, 2024. REUTERS/Raneen Sawafta

The Israeli police and internal security service said Thursday they arrested four suspects for "terrorist" acts against Palestinians during a deadly settler attack last week on an occupied West Bank village.
Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have soared since war began in the Gaza Strip last October, according to the United Nations.
"Overnight, the (Shin Bet security service) and Israeli Police arrested four individuals, three adults and a minor, suspected in several acts of terrorism against Palestinians," the security agencies said in a statement.
These incidents included "the severe riots on Thursday (August 15) in the village of Jit", in the north of the occupied West Bank, the statement said, adding an investigation is ongoing.
Residents have said about 100 settlers armed with knives and firearms set fire to cars and homes in the attack strongly condemned by Israeli officials as well as the United States, United Nations and European countries.
A police spokesman told AFP that "all the events" the suspects were arrested for took place in Jit "on the same day".
According to the Palestinian health ministry, Israeli settlers killed a 23-year-old Palestinian man in the August 15 attack.
Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law, and the United Nations considers them an obstacle to peace with Palestinians.
Since October 7, at least 640 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.
During the same period, at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli official figures.
On Monday during a visit to Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he wanted "to see action taken" to prevent settler violence, and for accountability.

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Arab World

Israeli Tanks Push Deeper into Gaza, as Biden Urges Peace

A Palestinian man stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Purchase Licensing Rights
A Palestinian man stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Purchase Licensing Rights
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Israeli Tanks Push Deeper into Gaza, as Biden Urges Peace

A Palestinian man stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Purchase Licensing Rights
A Palestinian man stands at the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, August 22, 2024. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa Purchase Licensing Rights

Israeli forces pressed deeper into areas of the central and southern Gaza Strip as they battled Hamas fighters, while Palestinian health officials said on Thursday that Israeli strikes had killed at least 27 people across the enclave.

The new escalation comes hours after US President Joe Biden pressed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the urgency of sealing a deal for a truce in Gaza and the release of hostages, the White House said.

Months of on-off talks on a ceasefire have circled the same issues, but Israel and Hamas have stuck firmly to their demands.

In the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, a strike on a house killed 11 people, including children and women, the bodies of some of whom had been burnt, according to the Hamas-run territory's Civil Emergency Service.

Medics said another strike killed six people, including a local journalist, in a house in Al-Maghazi camp in the central Gaza Strip, medics said while five others were killed in separate strikes in the south.

Later on Thursday, five Palestinians were killed and several wounded in an Israeli airstrike that hit people near a square in Khan Younis, health officials said, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military said its forces had intensified their operations in Deir Al-Balah, in central Gaza, and Khan Younis, in the south, dismantling dozens of military structures, locating rockets, and killing militants, over the past 24 hours.

It said forces killed 50 militants in the area of Rafah, in the far south of the enclave, over the past day.

The armed wing of Hamas said fighters ambushed an Israeli force in Rafah, killing and wounding several of them.

A phone call between Biden and Netanyahu late on Wednesday followed a whirlwind trip to the region by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that ended on Tuesday without producing a breakthrough in the 10-month-old war.

Hamas wants a deal that ends the war in Gaza and releases Israeli and foreign hostages in Gaza in return for the freedom of many Palestinians jailed by Israel. It blames Israel and the United States for the failure to conclude a deal.

Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is defeated, and that a ceasefire to allow the exchange of hostages and prisoners would be only a temporary pause while the militant group remains a threat. He denies obstructing a deal.

- TANKS AND DRONES

In the central Gaza town of Deir Al-Balah, which houses around 1 million residents and displaced Palestinians, according to the municipal council, residents said tanks advanced further from the east and blocked some roads connecting the city with the nearby Khan Younis in the south.

Israeli tanks have also advanced to the west, in Al-Karara and Hamad areas of Khan Younis, pushing more families out of their shelters and tents, sometimes under heavy fire from tanks and drones, residents said.

Some families slept on the roads, others on the beach after they failed to find space or shelter.

"Last night drones began firing towards the tents, we ducked down, for maybe hours, then the noise of tanks got louder as they advanced closer, so we decided to run," Imad Al-Ghalayeeni, 48, told Reuters by phone from Khan Younis.

"We are five families, 48 persons, we ran to the beach, some slept on the road, others slept onshore, just on the sand with no tents, no blankets or mattresses and you can imagine how terrified were the children and women," he added.

Ghalayeeni said there was growing disillusionment among Palestinians in Gaza about the ceasefire talks.

"These talks are time-wasting, and they aim to give Netanyahu the time he needs to continue what he is doing. There is no place the tanks didn't enter, or bomb, and there is nowhere safe anymore," he said.

Most of Gaza's 2.3 million population has been displaced multiple times since the start of the war. Even in areas designated safe zones, there have been regular reports of casualties from Israeli strikes.

In a hospital in the northern Gaza camp of Jabalia, health officials said they were forced to suspend several services in the facility, except for lifesaving treatment, after they ran out of fuel.

Israel's military campaign has killed more than 40,000 people in Gaza since October, according to Palestinian health authorities.