عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Arab World

Israel Concerned Over Palestinian Security Bodies Training in Russia

Fatah movement Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attends by video conference a meeting with deputy head of the movement's political bureau Saleh al-Arouri (unseen) discussing Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank, on July 2, 2020. (Abbas Momani/AFP)
Fatah movement Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attends by video conference a meeting with deputy head of the movement's political bureau Saleh al-Arouri (unseen) discussing Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank, on July 2, 2020. (Abbas Momani/AFP)
TT
20
TT

Israel Concerned Over Palestinian Security Bodies Training in Russia

Fatah movement Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attends by video conference a meeting with deputy head of the movement's political bureau Saleh al-Arouri (unseen) discussing Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank, on July 2, 2020. (Abbas Momani/AFP)
Fatah movement Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, attends by video conference a meeting with deputy head of the movement's political bureau Saleh al-Arouri (unseen) discussing Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank, on July 2, 2020. (Abbas Momani/AFP)

Israel fears the quality training Palestinian forces have been receiving in Russia, a report made by Channel 12 revealed.

Since 2007, which marks the severance of Fatah-Hamas ties, Palestinians have been studying at remarkable military Russian academies. Recently, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed students who returned from a battle command and fighting training in Moscow.

Fatah movement Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub said in a joint online conference held with deputy head of the movement's political bureau Saleh al-Arouri that the two Palestinian rival groups agreed to unify their positions against Israeli annexation plan.

Furthermore, secretive talks occurred between both parties to reach a unified strategy against annexation. This was approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and head of Hamas political bureau Ismail Haniyeh.

According to Times of Israel, “The joint declaration by the two main Palestinian factions raised the specter of a return to the Palestinian terror waves of the Second Intifada, when attackers linked to both Fatah and Hamas carried out numerous deadly suicide bombings and other attacks targeting Israeli civilians and soldiers.”

“The dangers for Fatah in collaborating with Hamas are clear, with the two movements having cultivated growing animosity since 2007,” it added.

Bringing Hamas leader al-Arouri on stage, literally and figuratively, gave Rajoub’s bitter criticisms of Israel’s annexation plans — and his vows to resist them, which he has issued several times in the recent past — a sharper edge: Al-Arouri has a USD5 million US State Department bounty on his head for orchestrating multiple acts of terrorism, the website added.

“Many Fatah members might consider a detente with Hamas to be out of the question, a deal with the devil. But Abbas and the leader of Fatah, may be grasping for the popular legitimacy he has long lacked by closing ranks with the terror group,” it said.

Hamas likely hopes the declaration of unity — and the promised anti-occupation coordination to come — will lead to fewer restrictions on its West Bank operations, Neri Zilber, a Tel Aviv-based analyst and an adjunct fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.

He added that Hamas has been banned from operating in the West Bank for years, with both Israeli and Palestinian security forces regularly cracking down on its activities and arresting its members.

“Yet, Abbas has already suspended security cooperation with Israel. If Fatah is indeed now willing to coordinate with Hamas, it may turn a blind eye to the terror group’s violence, or even actively encourage it,” Zilber stated.

According to Rajoub, Fatah will try and mobilize West Bank Hamas cadres to participate in mass demonstrations. But if the coordination announced Thursday means giving Hamas cadres a freer hand to organize in the West Bank, terror activities against Israelis could resume in and from the area.

Most Viewed

 
Arab World

Israeli Military Changes Initial Account of Gaza Aid Worker Killings

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20
TT

Israeli Military Changes Initial Account of Gaza Aid Worker Killings

Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians mourn medics, who came under Israeli fire while on a rescue mission, after their bodies were recovered, according to the Red Crescent, at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip March 31, 2025. (Reuters)

The Israeli military has provided new details that changed its initial account of the killing of 15 emergency workers near the southern Gaza city of Rafah last month but said investigators were still examining the evidence.

The 15 paramedics and emergency responders were shot dead on March 23 and buried in a shallow grave where their bodies were found a week later by officials from the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent. Another man is still missing.

The military initially said soldiers had opened fire on vehicles that approached their position "suspiciously" in the dark without lights or markings. It said they killed nine fighters from Hamas and Islamic Jihad who were travelling in Palestinian Red Crescent vehicles.

But video recovered from the mobile phone of one of the dead men and published by the Palestinian Red Crescent showed emergency workers in their uniforms and clearly marked ambulances and fire trucks, with their lights on, being fired on by soldiers.

The only known survivor of the incident, Palestinian Red Crescent paramedic Munther Abed, also said he had seen soldiers opening fire on clearly marked emergency response vehicles.

An Israeli military official said late on Saturday the investigators were examining the video and conclusions were expected to be presented to army commanders on Sunday.

Israeli media briefed by the military reported that troops had identified at least six of the 15 dead as members of the groups. However, the official declined to provide any evidence or detail of how the identifications were made, saying he did not want to share classified information.

"According to our information, there were terrorists there but this investigation is not over," he told reporters at the briefing late on Saturday.

The UN and the Palestinian Red Cross have demanded an independent inquiry into the killing of the paramedics.

Red Crescent officials have said 17 paramedics and emergency workers from the Red Crescent, the Civil Emergency service and the UN had been dispatched to respond to reports of injuries from Israeli air strikes.

Apart from Abed, who was detained for several hours before being released, another worker is still missing.

OPENED FIRE

The military official said initial findings from the investigation showed troops had opened fire on a vehicle at around 4 a.m., killing two members of the Hamas internal security forces, and taking another prisoner, who the official said had admitted under interrogation to being in Hamas.

As time passed, several vehicles passed along the road until, at around 6 a.m., he said troops received word from aerial surveillance that a suspicious group of vehicles was approaching.

"They feel this is another incident like what happened at 4 a.m. and they opened fire," the official said.

He said aerial surveillance footage showed the troops were at some distance when they opened fire, and he denied reports that the troops handcuffed at least some of the paramedics and shot them at close range.

"It's not from close. They opened fire from afar," he said. "There's no mistreatment of the people there."

He said the soldiers had approached the group they had shot, identifying at least some of them as fighters. However, he did not explain what evidence had prompted the assessment.

"And in their eyes, they had an encounter with terrorists, that is a successful encounter with terrorists."

He said the troops had informed the UN of the incident on the same day and initially covered the bodies with camouflage netting until they could be recovered. UN officials did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

"There was no incident where the Israeli army tried to cover up. On the contrary, they called the UN immediately."

Later, when the UN did not immediately come to take the bodies, the soldiers covered them with sand to stop animals from getting at them, the official said.

He said the vehicles were pushed out of the way by a heavy engineering vehicle to clear the road but he could not explain why the vehicles were crushed by the engineering vehicle and then buried.