UN Security Council to Discuss Israeli Violations on Wednesday

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. (Reuters)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. (Reuters)
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UN Security Council to Discuss Israeli Violations on Wednesday

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. (Reuters)
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. (Reuters)

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said Monday that the United Nations is required to be more credible by starting to translate Palestinian-related international statements and positions into actions.

The PM was speaking ahead of a UN Security Council open debate scheduled for Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

“At the request of the Palestinian government, the UN Security Council will discuss Wednesday the breaches committed by the occupation forces, the continuous attacks by settlers in the West Bank, including the occupied city of Jerusalem, and the ongoing Israeli siege on our people in the Gaza Strip,” the PM said following a cabinet meeting.

Shtayyeh said there has been a noticeable escalation in settler violence, house demolitions, forced displacement, detention and killing of Palestinian civilians, including children.

“The occupation soldiers killed a child from Deir Nidham while on Monday morning another child from Abwein died from his injuries after he was shot by Israeli bullets,” the PM said, adding that dozens of people were also injured in confrontations with Israeli soldiers in several areas in the Jordan Valley and Masafer Yatta.

Palestinians are hoping the Security Council would adopt resolutions to support the Palestinian cause, although such a position is unlikely to happen.

Last Friday, Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the UN Riyad Mansour slammed the international community’s inaction towards the Israeli violations of international law, including the UN Charter, Fourth Geneva Convention and UN resolutions.

He made his accusations in letters sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the General Assembly and this month’s President of the Security Council (France) and tackling the deteriorating situation resulting from Israel’s violations in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry asked the UN Security Council to respect its legal and moral obligations regarding Israeli violations and crimes against Palestinians.

It condemned in the strongest terms the occupation forces and called on the US administration, the Israeli government and some European countries to immediately recognize the State of Palestine.



Syria War Monitor Says More than 130 Dead in Army-Extremist Clashes

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
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Syria War Monitor Says More than 130 Dead in Army-Extremist Clashes

Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)
Fighters from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ride in military vehicles in the eastern outskirts of the town of Atarib, in Syria's northern province of Aleppo on November 27, 2024, during clashes with the Syrian army. (Photo by Abdulaziz KETAZ / AFP)

A Syria war monitor on Thursday said clashes between the army and extremists killed more than 130 combatants in the worst fighting in the country's northwest in years, as the government also reported fierce battles.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said extremist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and allied factions launched a surprise attack on the Syrian army in the northern province of Aleppo on Wednesday.
The toll "in battles ongoing for the past 24 hours has risen to 132, including 65 fighters from HTS", 18 from allied factions "and 49 members of regime forces", said the Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.
Some of the clashes, in an area straddling Idlib and Aleppo provinces, are less than 10 kilometers (six miles) southwest of the outskirts of Aleppo city.
HTS, led by Al-Qaeda's former Syria branch, controls swathes of much of the northwest Idlib area and slivers of neighboring Aleppo, Hama and Latakia provinces.
An AFP correspondent reported heavy, uninterrupted clashes east of the city of Idlib since Wednesday morning, including air strikes.
A military statement carried by state news agency SANA said that "armed terrorist organizations grouped under so-called 'Nusra terrorist front' present in Aleppo and Idlib provinces launched a large, broad-fronted attack" on Wednesday morning.
It said the attack with "medium and heavy weapons targeted safe villages and towns and our military sites in those areas".
The army "in cooperation with friendly forces" confronted the attack "which is still continuing", inflicting "heavy losses" on the armed groups, the military statement said, without reporting army losses.
Key highway
The Observatory said HTS was able to advance in Idlib province, taking control of Dadikh, Kafr Batikh and Sheikh Ali "after heavy clashes with the regime forces with Russian air cover".
"The villages have strategic importance due to their proximity to the M5 international highway", the monitor said, adding the factions, which already took control of two other locations, were "trying to cut the Aleppo-Damascus international highway".
The Observatory said that "Russian warplanes intensified air strikes", targeting the vicinity of Sarmin and other areas in Idlib province, alongside "heavy artillery shelling" and rocket fire.
Syria's conflict broke out after President Bashar al-Assad repressed anti-government protests in 2011, and spiraled into a complex conflict drawing in foreign armies and extremists.
It has killed more than 500,000 people, displaced millions and battered the country's infrastructure and industry.
The Idlib region is subject to a ceasefire -- repeatedly violated but still largely holding -- brokered by Türkiye and Damascus ally Russia after a Syrian government offensive in March 2020.