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Israel Advances New Settlement Plan in Jerusalem

Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
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Israel Advances New Settlement Plan in Jerusalem

Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)
Palestinian buildings are seen at right, behind a section of the West Bank Jewish settlement of Efrat, foreground, Thursday, June 9, 2022. (AP)

Israel has advanced a new statement plan in Jerusalem after postponing it for several weeks due to US President Joe Biden’s recent visit to the region.
Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality issued a tender to establish 434 settlement units on lands belonging to the Palestinian town of Sur Baher, southeast of Jerusalem.

The “Grand Project” is estimated to cost about 1.07 billion shekels. Once implemented, it will reach the 1967 borders, which the Palestinians demand to be the borders of their future state.

The Israel-based Azorim Investment Development and Construction Company is set to implement the project, which has a total area of ​​about 7.3 dunums, extending to Ramat Rachel settlement, overlooking Bethlehem.

The new projects sparked anger among Palestinians who considered it an integral part of the campaigns to Judaize Jerusalem and distort its cultural Palestinian, Christian, Islamic identity.

Palestine’s Foreign Ministry denounced the tender, stressing that it is part of a racist colonial expansionist scheme that aims to isolate Jerusalem from its vicinity and an extension of the crimes of the occupation and its settlers on the ground.

“It (project) seeks to deepen settlement and the theft of more land in a way that undermines efforts to launch a real and feasible peace process and negotiations between Palestine and Israel,” the ministry explained.

It held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the ongoing settlement crimes and considered the settlement-deepening attempts a systematic provocation of conflicts.

The Ministry called on the international community and the US administration to take immediate action to protect the two-state solution and translate the anti-settlement stance into practical measures and steps that would force the occupying power to stop it immediately.

Hamas Movement also condemned Israel’s new plan and considered it a further Judaization attempt to target the city’s identity.

“It is a desperate attempt that will not succeed in obliterating the landmarks of the holy city and changing historical facts,” it stressed in a statement.

A Hamas spokesman said this “Zionist crime will be confronted with the unity and struggle of our people by all means.”

Hamas urged Palestinians to have more patience and stand still in the face of the occupation’s violations and Judaization schemes.

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Arab World

Red Crescent Says Israeli Settler Gunfire Kills Two Palestinians Including Child

A worker walks past a Palestinian flag installed along a street in Turmus Ayya village, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
A worker walks past a Palestinian flag installed along a street in Turmus Ayya village, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
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Red Crescent Says Israeli Settler Gunfire Kills Two Palestinians Including Child

A worker walks past a Palestinian flag installed along a street in Turmus Ayya village, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 19, 2026. (AFP)
A worker walks past a Palestinian flag installed along a street in Turmus Ayya village, north of Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on April 19, 2026. (AFP)

The Palestinian Red Crescent said Israeli settler gunfire killed two people, including a 13-year-old child, in an attack on Tuesday near the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.

"Two people were killed -- one aged 13 and the other 32 -- and four others were injured by live gunfire during a settler attack on the village of Al-Mughayyir near Ramallah," the Red Crescent said in a statement, adding the wounded had been taken to hospital.

When asked by AFP, the Israeli military -- which has occupied the West Bank since 1967 -- said it was looking into the incident.

Arab World

Israel Says Applying Diplomatic, Military Pressure to Disarm Hezbollah

Mourners carry the flag-draped casket of a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group who was killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 20, 2026. (AFP)
Mourners carry the flag-draped casket of a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group who was killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 20, 2026. (AFP)
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Israel Says Applying Diplomatic, Military Pressure to Disarm Hezbollah

Mourners carry the flag-draped casket of a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group who was killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 20, 2026. (AFP)
Mourners carry the flag-draped casket of a member of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group who was killed in southern Lebanon during their funeral in the Kafaat area in Beirut's southern suburbs on April 20, 2026. (AFP)

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Tuesday that his country's campaign in Lebanon relied on both military and diplomatic pressure to disarm Iran-allied Hezbollah.

"The overarching goal of the campaign in Lebanon is to disarm Hezbollah and remove the threat to the northern communities (of Israel), through a combination of military and diplomatic measures," Katz said during a ceremony marking Israel's national day of remembrance for fallen soldiers and victims of terror.

"We will act in the same way with regard to high-trajectory fire (towards Israel) from north of the Litani and from throughout Lebanon," he added, referring to the Litani river, a natural marker that cuts across southern Lebanon, below which Israel wants no more Hezbollah presence.

Though a truce between Israel and Lebanon took effect Friday, Israeli troops are still present and actively fighting Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon's south, with Katz saying Sunday that troops would use "full force" if threatened.

Israel has conducted airstrikes across Lebanon and invaded the country's south after Hezbollah entered the Middle East war in support of its backer Iran on March 2.

An Arabic-language spokesperson for Israel's military on Monday warned Lebanese residents of the country's south not to return to the homes it had earlier urged them to evacuate, saying it considered Hezbollah activities in the area to be ceasefire violations.

Israel and Lebanon are still engaged in talks under US mediation to prolong the current truce.

The two-week ceasefire between the US and Iran looms in the background of talks, with the truce set to expire overnight Tuesday with no new deal yet struck.

Arab World

Lebanon Seeking to Leverage US Support in Negotiations with Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting with Lebanon's Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (out of frame) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (out of frame) at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting with Lebanon's Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (out of frame) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (out of frame) at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
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Lebanon Seeking to Leverage US Support in Negotiations with Israel

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting with Lebanon's Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (out of frame) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (out of frame) at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio (C), alongside US State Department Counselor Michael Needham (2L) and US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa (2R), speaks during a meeting with Lebanon's Ambassador to the US Nada Hamadeh Moawad (out of frame) and Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter (out of frame) at the State Department in Washington, DC, on April 14, 2026. (AFP)

Efforts to extend the ceasefire in Lebanon are accelerating amid Israeli reports of a new round of talks at the ambassador level paving the way for direct negotiations.

Lebanese officials say a meeting between President Joseph Aoun and US President Donald Trump could be scheduled “at any moment,” stressing it will remain bilateral and will not include Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has confirmed a US push to extend the ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel. However, official Lebanese sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that Beirut does not view the expected talks as limited to extending the truce, which expires at the end of the week.

The next step, the sources said, would be direct negotiations. Lebanon is ready to proceed after naming its delegation head, Ambassador Simon Karam, and preparing the necessary files.

Lebanese and Israeli representatives will hold talks in Washington on Thursday, a US State Department spokesperson told Reuters on Monday.

Aoun said Lebanon would conduct the talks through a delegation led by Karam, stressing no other party would represent or replace it.

Lebanese ministerial sources said the meeting would focus on extending the truce and setting a framework for direct negotiations, including their timing and location.

Meanwhile, US Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa met Aoun and Berri after returning to Beirut following the ceasefire announcement, without making public statements.

Berri confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that Washington is working to extend the truce but declined to comment on direct negotiations.

In a statement, Aoun noted the goal of the talks is to halt hostilities, end Israel’s presence in southern areas and deploy the Lebanese army along internationally recognized borders.

Trump had shown understanding of Lebanon’s position and intervened to help secure the ceasefire and launch a negotiating track aimed at restoring full Lebanese sovereignty, he remarked.

“The choice is between continued war, with its humanitarian, social and economic costs, or negotiations to end it and achieve lasting stability,” Aoun stated.

Hezbollah, for its part, has criticized the move toward direct talks. MP Hassan Fadlallah told AFP it would be in Lebanon’s interest to abandon that path and return to a national consensus, warning against unilateral decisions on issues tied to the country’s future.

He said the group would oppose any attempt to impose political concessions, calling for a sustained ceasefire, Israeli withdrawal, the return of displaced residents, the release of detainees and reconstruction.

Meanwhile, Information Minister Paul Morcos stressed that the Lebanese president values Saudi Arabia’s role in securing the ceasefire, noting Riyadh’s diplomacy contributed to the truce.

Lebanon continues to count on Saudi and broader Gulf support, he said, describing those ties as strategic and based on shared principles, including sovereignty and independence.