Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian During West Bank Clash

The Israeli forces after demolishing the house of Jihad Abu Sneina in Masafer Yatta last February (file/Wafa)
The Israeli forces after demolishing the house of Jihad Abu Sneina in Masafer Yatta last February (file/Wafa)
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Israeli Soldiers Kill Palestinian During West Bank Clash

The Israeli forces after demolishing the house of Jihad Abu Sneina in Masafer Yatta last February (file/Wafa)
The Israeli forces after demolishing the house of Jihad Abu Sneina in Masafer Yatta last February (file/Wafa)

Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian during clashes in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

Israel's military said security forces had arrested five people suspected of what it called terrorist activity in and around the city of Jenin when a riot erupted.

"The rioters hurled rocks, explosive devices and Molotov cocktails at the forces and shots were heard in the area. The soldiers responded with live fire, hits were identified," it said.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the killing, calling it an execution, Reuters reported.

Violence has simmered in the West Bank since Israel began a months-long campaign against suspected militants in response to a spate of street attacks carried out by Palestinians and members of Israel's Arab minority that killed at least 18 people.

So far 97 Palestinians have been killed, the Health Ministry said, including the attackers, civilians, and those shot during clashes with Israeli forces.

Also overnight, four Israeli soldiers were injured when an explosive device was thrown at their post near the Palestinian town of Nabi Saleh, the army said.



UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
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UN: More Than One Million Syrians Returned to Their Homes Since Assad’s Fall 

A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)
A boy looks out from inside a tent in al-Roj camp, Syria, on January 10, 2020. (Reuters)

More than one million people have returned to their homes in Syria after the overthrow of Bashar Al-Assad on Dec. 8, including 800,000 people displaced inside the country and 280,000 refugees who came back from abroad, the UN said on Tuesday.

“Since the fall of the regime in Syria, we estimate that 280,000 Syrian refugees and more than 800,000 people displaced inside the country have returned to their homes,” Filippo Grandi, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, wrote on the X social media platform.

“Early recovery efforts must be bolder and faster, though otherwise people will leave again: this is now urgent!” he said.

Last January, the UN's high commissioner for refugees urged the international community to back Syria's reconstruction efforts to facilitate the return of millions of refugees.

“Lift the sanctions, open up space for reconstruction. If we don't do it now at the beginning of the transition, we waste a lot of time,” Grandi told a press conference in Ankara, after returning from a trip in Lebanon and Syria.

At a meeting in mid-February, some 20 countries, including Arab nations, Türkiye, Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Japan agreed at the close of a conference in Paris to “work together to ensure the success of the transition in a process led by Syria.”

The meeting's final statement also pledged support for Syria's new authorities in the fight against “all forms of terrorism and extremism.”

Meanwhile, AFP reported on Tuesday that displaced people are returning to their neighborhoods in Homs, where rebels first took up arms to fight Assad's crackdown on protests in 2011, only to find them in ruins.

In Homs, the Syrian military had besieged and bombarded opposition areas such as Baba Amr, where US journalist Marie Colvin was killed in a bombing in 2012.

“The house is burned down, there are no windows, no electricity,” said Duaa Turki at her dilapidated home in Khaldiyeh neighborhood.

“We removed the rubble, laid a carpet” and moved in, said the 30-year-old mother of four.

“Despite the destruction, we're happy to be back. This is our neighborhood and our land.”

Duaa’s husband spends his days looking for a job, she said, while they hope humanitarian workers begin distributing aid to help the family survive.