Israeli Settlers Kill Palestinian in West Bank, Military Strike Kills 5 Others 

22 August 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: A view of a damaged car destroyed by Israeli forces during a raid on Tulkarm refugee camp. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
22 August 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: A view of a damaged car destroyed by Israeli forces during a raid on Tulkarm refugee camp. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
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Israeli Settlers Kill Palestinian in West Bank, Military Strike Kills 5 Others 

22 August 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: A view of a damaged car destroyed by Israeli forces during a raid on Tulkarm refugee camp. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
22 August 2024, Palestinian Territories, Tulkarm: A view of a damaged car destroyed by Israeli forces during a raid on Tulkarm refugee camp. (Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

Israeli settlers shot dead one Palestinian and wounded three others in the occupied West Bank's Bethlehem, while five others were killed in an Israeli strike on the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Israeli military said its aircraft struck a militant operations center in the camp, and that troops were separately blocking routes and conducting searches in the West Bank following reports of an abduction.

It was looking into reports on the settler raid, it added.

Palestinians regularly accuse Israeli security forces of standing by and allowing groups of violent settlers to attack their houses and villages and the incidents have attracted increasing concern internationally.

The US and a number of European countries have imposed sanctions on violent settlers and called repeatedly on Israel to do more to curb the attacks.

In parallel to escalating settler attacks, clashes with the Israeli military in the West Bank have risen sharply since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza last year as Israeli forces have stepped up operations against armed groups, including Iranian-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested in military raids, and at least 637 have been killed, according to Palestinian Health Ministry figures. Many of them are armed fighters but others are stone-throwing youths or uninvolved civilians.

At least 30 Israelis - civilians and soldiers - have been killed by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank in the same period, official Israeli figures showed.



Yemen Warns of Environmental Disaster as Oil Tanker Faces Explosion

Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
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Yemen Warns of Environmental Disaster as Oil Tanker Faces Explosion

Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)
Sounion oil tanker (Reuters)

The Yemeni government has issued a warning about a looming environmental disaster in the Red Sea, where the Greek oil tanker “Sounion” is at risk of exploding or sinking due to ongoing fires.
The fires started after the Iranian-backed Houthi militants attacked the tanker last Wednesday, as part of their escalating maritime assaults, claiming to support Palestinians in Gaza.
The warning coincides with reports from the European maritime mission (ASPIDES), which noted that the fires on the tanker, carrying around one million barrels of oil, are still burning in an area between Yemen and Eritrea in the southern Red Sea.
ASPIDES announced on Monday via platform X that fires have been burning on the “Sounion” tanker since last Friday, with no signs of an oil spill yet.
The mission also shared images on Sunday showing flames and thick smoke rising from at least five spots on the ship’s deck, including part of its upper structure.
The tanker was attacked by Houthi militants on August 21, causing its engines to fail and leaving it adrift. A French warship from ASPIDES evacuated the 29 crew members, mostly Filipinos, to Djibouti.
Houthi-released footage shows the group boarding the tanker, placing explosives near the tank openings, and detonating them remotely, which ignited the fires. There are concerns that the tanker could sink or explode, leading to a major oil spill.
Yemeni Information Minister Muammar Al-Eryani warned of the looming environmental disaster after revealing that the attack on Sounion was the ninth such strike on oil tankers in the Red Sea since last November.
The tanker is carrying 150,000 tons of crude oil.
Al-Eryani said the Houthi attacks caused the tanker to drift, disabled its engines, and led to the evacuation of its crew, leaving the vessel at risk of sinking or exploding just 85 nautical miles from Yeman’s Hodeidah port city.
He accused Houthis of “systematic terrorism” that could trigger an unprecedented environmental, economic, and humanitarian crisis.