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Video Shows Fires in Palestinian Village in West Bank During Israeli Settler Attack

People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
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Video Shows Fires in Palestinian Village in West Bank During Israeli Settler Attack

People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)
People stand in an area with destroyed vehicles and a structure, which Palestinians say were burned by Israeli settlers on Saturday, in the Palestinian town of Mikhmas, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, January 18, 2026. (Reuters)

Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the West Bank, setting fire to a series of structures, according to security camera footage obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, in an overnight onslaught that has become a common phenomenon in the occupied territory.

In the video, time-stamped at around 10 p.m. Saturday, several structures in the village go up in flames as the sound of gunfire, screaming and barking echoes in the background. At one point in the video, the fires grow so large that they illuminate the bands of settlers, dressed in black, pacing freely through the village.

Also Sunday, at least four more countries said they had been invited to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the international body expected to oversee his Gaza ceasefire plan and perhaps other conflict resolutions.

Meanwhile, an Israeli Cabinet minister said that he'd ordered officials to disconnect the water and electricity for facilities of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA. It's the latest action in Israel’s long-running campaign to shut down the agency. UNRWA fears the shutdown could hamper its work in east Jerusalem.

Settler attack video

The footage obtained by the AP showed the moment dozens of settlers descended on the small Bedouin hamlet of Khirbet al-Sidra, north of Jerusalem, attacking Palestinians and international activists and burning cars and homes, according to the Palestinian Authority's Jerusalem governate, which monitors Palestinian affairs in the area.

In a statement, it said that eight homes and at least two cars were burned in the attack.

Israel’s military said that soldiers dispatched to the village found an Israeli vehicle with clubs inside. It said that Palestinians, Israelis and foreign nationals were injured, and troops were searching the area to make arrests. As of Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been reported.

It marked the latest assault in the tense territory as settler violence spikes in recent months.

Around 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.

The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state. Israel has sought to play down the violence as the work of a small, radical minority. But Israel's far-right government, dominated by settlers and their supporters, has done little to stop the attacks.

Board of Peace invites

Jordan, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan on Sunday announced that they had received invitations to Trump's Board of Peace. Albania, Egypt, Paraguay, Argentina and Türkiye have already said they were invited.

The board, made up of world leaders, was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It's now taking shape with ambitions to have a far broader mandate to address other global crises, potentially rivaling the United Nations.

The US hasn't yet announced the official list of members. In letters sent Friday to various world leaders inviting them to be “founding members” of the board, Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict.”

Israel moves against UNRWA

Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on X Sunday he'd issued formal notices to disconnect water and electricity from facilities belonging to UNRWA.

The UN agency said on X that the shutdown could take effect within two weeks. It comes after Israel's parliament in December passed a bill to cut the supply of electricity and water to the facilities.

The earlier ban already closed many of UNRWA’s services in east Jerusalem, though it continues to operate a vocational training center in east Jerusalem.

The agency provides aid and services, including health and education, to around 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.

Earlier last year, Israel banned the agency from operating on its territory. The ban followed months of attacks on the agency by Israel, which says it's deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that accusation.

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Arab World

Erbil Rejects Exporting Oil for Baghdad without Conditional Deal

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Kurdistan government /AFP)
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Kurdistan government /AFP)
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Erbil Rejects Exporting Oil for Baghdad without Conditional Deal

An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Kurdistan government /AFP)
An oil field in Iraqi Kurdistan. (Kurdistan government /AFP)

Two Kurdish officials ruled out allowing Iraqi oil exports through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Türkiye’s Ceyhan port “without a deal and conditions.”

Their remarks come after reports that Iraq’s Oil Ministry sent a letter to the Kurdistan Regional Government requesting the export of at least 100,000 barrels per day through the Kurdistan pipeline to the Turkish port.

Speaking to Asharq Al-Awsat on condition of anonymity, the officials said the region may agree to allow Iraqi oil from the Kirkuk fields to pass through its pipeline “under the weight of the current crisis and US pressure.”

However, they stressed that the region would not allow the oil to pass free of charge or without conditions.

There has been no official confirmation or denial from the Kurdistan Region regarding the federal ministry’s request. One official said the issue is expected to be discussed at a meeting of the region’s government and predicted a “conditional Kurdish approval.”

He noted that the pipeline in the Kurdistan Region cost billions of dollars to build and was largely financed through loans taken by the region from Türkiye and other countries.

The official said the region’s authorities “were forced to build the pipeline” after Baghdad cut the region’s financial allocations between 2014 and 2018, prompting Kurdistan to seek alternative revenue sources to sustain daily life and cover government spending.

“It is not logical for Baghdad to pay only transit fees,” he said. “It should pay more than that to the regional government because this pipeline was not built from the Iraqi state treasury but from funds that became debts owed by the region.”

He added that “the time has come to hold accountability on many issues, including the suspension of the region’s budget for several years.”

The second official said exporting oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipelines to Türkiye “cannot happen without conditions.”

“Such a step is usually linked to a package of political and economic understandings between the region and the federal government,” he said, adding that it could also influence developments in the energy market, particularly the sharp rise in oil prices.

He said it was “natural for the region to seek to resolve several outstanding issues with Baghdad within a framework that takes into account the interests of both sides and strengthens stability in the energy file.”

“We also have the dollar problem resulting from the application of the ASYCUDA system at the region’s border crossings, which has caused significant damage to imports and trade in the region in recent months,” he added.

Iraq’s crisis

Baghdad is facing a serious challenge after halting oil exports following the war that erupted between the US, Israel, and Iran, leaving it unable to meet financial obligations or pay public sector salaries in the coming months.

Nabil Al-Marsoumi, a professor of economics at the University of Basra, said Iraq has made the largest oil production cuts in the world due to the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, reducing output by about 2.9 million barrels per day.

In a Facebook post, Al-Marsoumi said that because of the war and the shutdown of most oil fields, Iraq’s crude exports from Kurdistan fields via the Turkish Ceyhan pipeline had fallen from 200,000 barrels per day to between 20,000 and 40,000 barrels per day.

He said this means Iraq’s current exports do not exceed 50,000 barrels per day after including shipments to Jordan of about 10,000 barrels per day.

Al-Marsoumi said it would be possible to export 250,000 barrels per day of Kirkuk oil through the Kurdistan Region’s pipeline to Ceyhan once the Kurdistan Regional Government approves.

He added that contacts are underway with the Jordanian government to increase oil exports through tanker trucks.

Authorities in Baghdad have faced strong public criticism for relying entirely on southern ports for oil exports and for failing to complete alternative export pipelines through Jordan or Syria.

Alternative routes

Saheb Bazoun, an Oil Ministry spokesperson, told AFP that Iraq’s oil sector has been heavily affected by the disruption.

“Much like other countries in the region, oil production and marketing have been severely impacted, leaving the government no choice but to seek alternative export routes to the Strait of Hormuz,” Bazoun said.

He added that several Iraqi oil shipments are currently stranded at sea.

Arab World

Lebanon Village Wants Army Protection from Israel, Hezbollah

Residents of the Christian Lebanese border village of Qlayaa carry the coffin of the village's priest, Father Pierre al-Rai during his funeral on March 11, 2026. (AFP)
Residents of the Christian Lebanese border village of Qlayaa carry the coffin of the village's priest, Father Pierre al-Rai during his funeral on March 11, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Village Wants Army Protection from Israel, Hezbollah

Residents of the Christian Lebanese border village of Qlayaa carry the coffin of the village's priest, Father Pierre al-Rai during his funeral on March 11, 2026. (AFP)
Residents of the Christian Lebanese border village of Qlayaa carry the coffin of the village's priest, Father Pierre al-Rai during his funeral on March 11, 2026. (AFP)

After narrowly escaping death in her border village, Myriam Nohra is among the people in south Lebanon imploring the army for protection from the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

In Christian-majority Qlayaa, which overlooks a vast green plain separating Lebanon and Israel, hundreds of people buried their parish priest Father Pierre Rai on Wednesday, two days after he was killed by Israeli shelling while inspecting the site of an attack.

Army commander Rodolphe Haykal, who came to the church, faced angry residents who called on the military to bolster its presence in the border area, stop Hezbollah fighters from launching rockets near their village, and to ensure locals can remain.

Dressed in black, 34-year-old teacher Nohra told AFP that just hours after Rai's death "a Hezbollah rocket fell over our heads after going off course towards Israel" as her family slept.

She, her husband and two children "survived by a miracle".

"I ran like crazy looking for (the children) in their room. I couldn't believe they were alive," she said, her voice trembling.

"I can't describe the destruction to the house or the trauma they went through."

Until days ago, Qlayaa had been spared the regional war that Lebanon was drawn into last week when Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Israel, which had kept up strikes in Lebanon even before the war despite a 2024 ceasefire with Hezbollah, has since launched air raids across the country and sent ground troops into border areas.

- 'We'll stay' -

Rai's death and the rocket that hit Nohra's home have heightened fears in Qlayaa, where like in some other Christian villages near the border, residents are refusing to leave despite sweeping Israeli army evacuation warnings.

"What price have we paid today and for who? We've never harmed anyone in our lives. We only want to live in our village in peace and safety," said Nohra as the sound of prayers mixed with aircraft noise overhead.

Following the ceasefire that sought to end the previous hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, the Lebanese army had bolstered its presence near the Israeli border and dismantled Hezbollah infrastructure there.

But the army withdrew from several border positions last week as Israel launched its new strikes and incursions.

South Lebanon has long been a stronghold of Hezbollah, a Shiite movement backed by Iran, and which gained much of its legitimacy from providing protection and services to a community that had long been sidelined.

And while the majority of south Lebanon's residents are Shiite, not all of them support Hezbollah, and side by side with Muslim villages are communities of other faiths, including Christians.

For many years, Hezbollah was believed to have an arsenal bigger than the army's but Nohra, like many in the south, blamed the military for failing to protect residents.

If the military were carrying out its duty, she said, "nobody would be able to launch rockets around us".

Resident Manal Khairallah said she told Haykal that "we want no more blood."

"I asked the army commander to do his job," she said.

"Our ancestors lived here. We grew up here and we'll stay here," she said.

- 'Enough' -

"We blame the state in its entirety," she said angrily.

"We are peaceful and we don't want war."

Apostolic Nuncio to Lebanon Paolo Borgia, who attended the funeral, said he "shared the worries" of the residents and was trying "to find solutions".

Israel has issued warnings to all residents south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border, to evacuate, and has said it wants to create a buffer zone in Lebanon to protect residents of north Israel.

Khairallah said defiantly that "we will not leave our homes, no matter what happens."

"This war has nothing to do with us," said retired soldier Jihad Toubia, 73.

"Even if Israel sets up a buffer zone, we won't leave. Let them bury us here," he said.

Local official Habib al-Hage, 78, said that "the army and security forces are the only guarantee."

"We won't leave, even if they want to kill us," he said.

Teacher Doris Farah, 55, broke down describing her anxiety and sadness since the new war erupted.

"We are attached to our land... we want the army to protect us," she said.

"The south has sacrificed so much -- for us, it's enough. We just want to live with our children in peace."

Arab World

Calls for Deescalation in Lebanon at UN Security Council

Permanent representative of Lebanon to the United Nations Ahmad Arafa (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting called to address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 11 March 2026. (EPA)
Permanent representative of Lebanon to the United Nations Ahmad Arafa (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting called to address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 11 March 2026. (EPA)
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Calls for Deescalation in Lebanon at UN Security Council

Permanent representative of Lebanon to the United Nations Ahmad Arafa (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting called to address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 11 March 2026. (EPA)
Permanent representative of Lebanon to the United Nations Ahmad Arafa (C) speaks during a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting called to address the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, at the UN headquarters in New York, New York, USA, 11 March 2026. (EPA)

Senior UN officials and member states called Wednesday for an end to fighting in Lebanon, where Israel has launched strikes in retaliation to attacks by the Hezbollah party.

"An immediate de-escalation and cessation of violence is imperative," Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN lead for political and peacebuilding affairs, told a Security Council meeting in New York.

Lebanon was drawn into the war last week when Iran-backed Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes.

Around 30 countries, including those with UN peacekeepers in Lebanon, earlier Wednesday issued a joint statement voicing "deep alarm at the escalation of hostilities."

"Faced with war, Lebanon must be supported. Its sovereignty and territorial integrity must be preserved," Jerome Bonnafont, the French ambassador to the United Nations, told reporters before the Security Council meeting.

He added that the countries he represented, including France, Britain, Germany, India and Korea, "condemn in the strongest terms" Hezbollah's attacks.

Israel's UN envoy Danny Danon said that Israeli forces will continue to operate in Lebanon "as long (as) there will be a threat against us."

"Israel does not want to be operating, but Israel will not accept rockets fired at our people, and we will do whatever is necessary to stop them," Danon told reporters.

- 'Grave peril' -

During the Security Council meeting, several states including France and Britain condemned the Hezbollah attacks -- saying they had dragged Lebanon into regional war.

Meanwhile, Russia primarily blamed the United States and Israel over their strikes on Iran.

"It is the American and Israeli military escapade that is plunging the overall region ever deeper into chaos," said Anna Evstigneeva, Russia's deputy UN envoy.

The Lebanese ambassador, Ahmad Arafa, said his country "finds itself trapped in a war that it did not choose between Israel and Hezbollah."

"Lebanon is facing an extremely dangerous moment and a true humanitarian catastrophe," he said.

The death toll from 10 days of fighting reached 634 on Wednesday, with more than 800,000 people displaced, according to Lebanese officials.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher warned the Security Council of "a moment of grave peril for Lebanon and for the region."

"As a result of the region's latest war, and following months of violence, we've watched the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon intensify with alarming speed," he later added.