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Gantz in Washington Wednesday to Defend ‘Settlements,’ Israeli Measures in West Bank

Gantz and Blinken during a meeting in Jerusalem last March (Reuters)
Gantz and Blinken during a meeting in Jerusalem last March (Reuters)
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Gantz in Washington Wednesday to Defend ‘Settlements,’ Israeli Measures in West Bank

Gantz and Blinken during a meeting in Jerusalem last March (Reuters)
Gantz and Blinken during a meeting in Jerusalem last March (Reuters)

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced he will travel Wednesday to the United States, where he expects to meet with his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in Washington to tackle issues of interest for both countries.

Although his office did not give details of the nature of the meeting, a source in his ministry said Gantz will try to defend the Israeli government’s decision to build about 4,000 new housing units in Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The source said that Washington had strongly criticized the settlement decision, as well as the recent Israeli operations in the West Bank and Jerusalem, particularly the assassination of Palestinian-US journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and the brutal assault on her funeral processions.

Gantz will carry with him the results of the investigation conducted by an Israeli officer into the assassination.

Earlier this month, the Israeli Defense Minister had arranged to attend two Jewish events held in the US by his ministry, the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Agency, to raise funds for the Israeli army.

However, the assassination of Abu Akleh pushed Gantz to ask to meet US officials.

Last week, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for an "immediate and credible investigation" into the circumstances of the killing of Abu Akleh.

Blinken announced that he spoke to Shireen's brother and expressed deep condolences for her loss, and deep respect for the work that she did as a journalist for many years.

US President Joe Biden has accepted an invitation to visit Israel in June and show support for Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett against the two men’s opponent, Benjamin Netanyahu.

Despite the announcement, the Biden administration had appealed several times to the Bennett government in recent weeks, warning against approving new settlement projects.

The US envoy to Israel, Thomas Naides, said he and other Biden administration officials have made it clear to Israeli officials several times in the last two weeks that the administration is opposed to the construction of new settlements and asked Israeli authorities not to move ahead with it.

Few days following Naides’ comments, the Israeli Civil Administration, a military body, said the Higher Planning Committee met last Thursday to give green light to the building of 3,988 new settler units.

Political sources in Tel Aviv expressed their fear of an angry US reaction to the Committee’s decision that would push the Biden administration to cancel or postpone the president’s visit to Israel.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post newspaper said that Bennett decided to take rightward steps to strengthen his Yamina party and prevent further defections from it.

It said Bennett will visit Elkana in Samaria on Tuesday, his first public visit to a West Bank settlement since becoming prime minister 11 months ago.

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Arab World

Iran Missile Fire Kills 3 Palestinians in West Bank, Foreign Worker in Israel

Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
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Iran Missile Fire Kills 3 Palestinians in West Bank, Foreign Worker in Israel

Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma
Iranian missiles fly towards Israel, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, as seen from Hebron, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 18, 2026. REUTERS/Mussa Qawasma

Iranian missile attacks have killed three Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank and a foreign worker in central Israel, medics said Thursday.

Falling shrapnel struck a hair salon in the West Bank town of Beit Awa near Hebron late Wednesday, killing the three women, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society, marking the first Palestinian deaths from Iranian attacks in the ongoing Middle East war.

The victims include 17-year-old Mays Ghazi Masalmeh, according to the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa.

The Red Crescent said at least eight others were wounded, including one woman in critical condition.

Wafa reported that the salon had been set up in a metal caravan next to a house.

AFP images showed civil defense workers inside the caravan, whose roof appeared to be punctured by the falling munition. A rug and bed sheets were covered in blood.

The news agency said missile fragments landed in multiple locations across the West Bank, including within the city of Hebron, after Israel's military reported another round of Iranian missile launches.

A short while later, Israeli medics said Iranian missile fire had killed a man in central Israel, bringing the death toll in Israel from attacks during the ongoing war to 15.

Israel's Magen David Adom medical emergency service described the victim as a "foreign worker", with Israeli media reports saying he was a Thai national working in agriculture.

Thailand's foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday the death of a Thai agricultural worker, citing information from Israeli officials.

He was killed in Moshav Adanim, a town about 20 kilometers (12 miles) northeast of Tel Aviv and less than eight kilometers from the West Bank, according to the Israeli medical service.

A statement from Magen David Adom quoted its medic Idan Shina as saying "metal shrapnel was scattered across the scene", where the man was found dead with "severe shrapnel injuries".

The Israeli military earlier said it had identified a round of missile fire from Iran, which it was "operating to intercept".

Since that attack, the military reported several more waves of Iranian attacks, triggering air raid alerts across parts of central and northern Israel as well as in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said they had launched missiles and drones at targets across Israel, according to a statement carried by Iranian news agencies Fars and ISNA.

Israeli media said some of the overnight barrages saw the use of cluster munitions, which explode mid-air and scatter bomblets across a wide area.

Iran and Israel have previously accused each other of using cluster bombs.

Arab World

Israel Ramps up Qassam Killings in Gaza for Fourth Consecutive Day

Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Ramps up Qassam Killings in Gaza for Fourth Consecutive Day

Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)
Palestinian policemen inspect a vehicle in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, March 16, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel has stepped up targeted killings of fighters in Gaza for a fourth day in a row, zeroing in on field commanders in the military wings of Palestinian factions, particularly the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, across the north and south of the enclave.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military used a suicide drone to strike a tent in the Mawasi area of Khan Younis, killing Mohammed Abu Shahla, a senior field commander in the Khan Younis brigade and its intelligence chief.

A field source told Asharq Al-Awsat that Abu Shahla was “the third-ranking figure in the eastern Khan Younis area” and a key figure within the Qassam Brigades due to his military and security experience.

Several civilians were wounded in the strike.

A day earlier, an Israeli drone hit a vehicle carrying Yahya Abu Labda, a Qassam Brigades field commander responsible for logistics and supply in Khan Younis. He was killed along with two others nearby.

Field sources said Abu Labda had also been active in humanitarian work, overseeing projects to establish camps for displaced people and deliver aid. He had received substantial donations from abroad, “which may have contributed to Israel accelerating his targeting,” the sources said.

On Monday, an Israeli drone strike killed Younis Alyan, a field commander in the northern brigade of the Qassam Brigades, firing a single missile that killed him instantly.

The Israeli military said Alyan was in charge of the brigade’s naval force and had led a series of attacks.

Sources within the Qassam Brigades told Asharq Al-Awsat that Alyan had recently been tasked with reorganizing the group’s structure in western Jabalia and had held several roles during and before the war.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike killed seven Hamas police members in a vehicle in the Zawayda area in central Gaza. It later emerged that one of them, Iyad Abu Youssef, was a Qassam Brigades field commander who also served as a Hamas police officer.

According to an Asharq Al-Awsat tally, at least seven field commanders, including company commanders and deputy battalion commanders, have been killed in the past two weeks, among them Alyan, Abu Labda, and Abu Shahla, along with other fighters.

The escalation in Gaza coincided with Israeli killings of two Hamas operatives in Lebanon. One, Wissam Taha, was killed in Sidon and described by the Israeli military as part of a financial network supporting the group. The other, Walid Deeb, was a Hamas official in Lebanon’s refugee camps.

Armed groups backed by Israel have mirrored the campaign. On Tuesday, gunmen tried to kill a Qassam Brigades operative in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City.

Two assailants opened fire inside a supermarket using a silenced weapon, seriously wounding him before fleeing toward Israeli-controlled areas.

Sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that members of these groups had received advanced training at Israeli military sites and now possess weapons and drones, and are being trained to use them against Hamas operatives.

The Hamas-run government media office in Gaza said it had recorded 2,073 violations of a ceasefire that took effect on Oct. 10. These included 750 shooting incidents, 87 incursions, 973 bombardments and 263 demolitions of homes and buildings.

The violations have killed more than 677 people, including 305 children and women, wounded 1,813 and led to 50 arrests.

Arab World

Israel Army Chief Says West Bank Settler Attacks ‘Ethically Unacceptable’

New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Israel Army Chief Says West Bank Settler Attacks ‘Ethically Unacceptable’

New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)
New settlements near Abu Falah village, near Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 11, 2026. (Reuters)

Israel's military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir on Wednesday criticized a recent rise in settler attacks in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, calling the violence against troops and civilians "morally and ethically unacceptable".

At least six Palestinians have been killed in attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of March, according to an AFP tally.

"Recently there has been an increase in nationalist crime incidents, some of which are directed against our troops and toward civilian populations," Zamir said, referring to Palestinians living in the territory, as he visited the Central Command.

"It is unacceptable that during a multi-front war the Israeli army is forced to confront a threatening minority from within," he said, adding that the attackers "do not represent the wider population."

"I call on all authorities in the country to act against this phenomenon and stop it before it is too late," he said, in a statement issued by the military.

"Anyone who believes these actions contribute to security is mistaken -- they are morally and ethically unacceptable and cause extraordinary strategic damage to the efforts of the army," he said.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. It has continued despite the ceasefire and spiked since the start of the war against Iran.

Alongside roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

While most Israeli settlers do not engage in violence, a small but militant fringe has been linked to attacks on Palestinians.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,050 Palestinians -- many of them gunmen, but also scores of civilians -- in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

Official Israeli figures say that 45 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

The current Israeli government, considered one of the most right-wing in the country's history, has fast-tracked settlement expansion and recognized some outposts.