Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian at West Bank Barrier

Israeli soldiers in Nablus. AP file photo
Israeli soldiers in Nablus. AP file photo
TT

Israeli Troops Kill Palestinian at West Bank Barrier

Israeli soldiers in Nablus. AP file photo
Israeli soldiers in Nablus. AP file photo

Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian who tried to cross Israel's security barrier from the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

Israel's military said soldiers identified near the city of Qalqilya a suspect damaging the security fence and trying to cross into Israel. The soldiers opened fire, it said, adding that the incident was still being looked into.

Israel constructed its barrier along the West Bank frontier at the height of a Palestinian uprising. Palestinians call it a land grab.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry said Sunday's shooting was a "field execution".

The Health Ministry said forces killed the man, identified as Nabil Ahmed Salim Ghanem from the West Bank city of Nablus, near the barrier. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said he was 53 years old.

Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man last month under similar circumstances.

Every day around 165,000 Palestinians cross with permits into Israel for work, according to the Palestinian workers union, but each week thousands of others cross illegally, often avoiding checkpoints through gaps in the security fence.



German, French FMs Meet Sharaa in Damascus, Press for Inclusive Political Transition

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
TT

German, French FMs Meet Sharaa in Damascus, Press for Inclusive Political Transition

Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS
Head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Syria's de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa meets with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot in Damascus, Syria January 3, 2025. Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham/Handout via REUTERS

The foreign ministers of Germany and France said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition as they met its de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday on behalf of the European Union.
Germany's Annalena Baerbock and France's Jean-Noel Barrot are the first ministers from the EU to visit Syria since opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee.

The two ministers pressed for an inclusive political transition that includes women and all ethnic and religious groups.
"My trip today...is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible," Baerbock said before she left for Damascus.
Barrot expressed his hope "for a sovereign, stable and peaceful Syria" after arriving in Damascus, where he also visited the French embassy, which has been closed since 2012.
Barrot, who met with the Syrian staff who looked after the French embassy's closed facilities, said France would work towards re-establishing diplomatic representation in line with political and security conditions, diplomatic sources said.

Baerbock and Barrot visited Syria's Saydnaya prison, an emblem of abuses under Assad.

"Now it's up to the international community to help bring justice to the people who have suffered here in this prison of hell," Baerbock said.