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US Vows to Re-Evaluate its Position on Palestinian Organizations

Offices of the Union of Palestinian Women Committees in Ramallah after the Israeli forces raid (EPA)
Offices of the Union of Palestinian Women Committees in Ramallah after the Israeli forces raid (EPA)
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US Vows to Re-Evaluate its Position on Palestinian Organizations

Offices of the Union of Palestinian Women Committees in Ramallah after the Israeli forces raid (EPA)
Offices of the Union of Palestinian Women Committees in Ramallah after the Israeli forces raid (EPA)

The US administration has agreed to re-examine its position in rejecting Tel Aviv's decision to ban the activities of six Palestinian organizations.

A high-ranking Israeli delegation arrived in the US, seeking Washington's support for Tel Aviv's designation of the Palestinian civil society groups as terrorist organizations.

Political sources revealed that the Israeli government has been angered by the statements of US officials expressing concern over Tel Aviv's decision to close the offices of six Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank.

Consequently, Tel Aviv sent a high-ranking delegation to Washington, including military, Shin Bet, and Public Prosecution officials, to meet with US officials.

The sources said the delegation provided new information about the activities of these associations and clarified their alleged role in supporting terrorism.

The delegation also presented a list of 250 other NGOs in the West Bank that Tel Aviv has no problem with, even though most of them are very critical of Israel.

The delegation requested that the US administration change its position and support Israel in its decision to ban the activities of these associations. According to the Israelis, the US did not respond to their request, but it is currently evaluating the additional information.

Israeli forces have raided the ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Defense for Children International – Palestine, al-Haq, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women Committees, as well as Bisan Center for Research and Development.

They confiscated computers, documents and files, arrested several activists, and prepared a report claiming they were all operating under the leadership of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The report was addressed to the US administration and the European Union, requesting they stop funding these associations. Following this, European countries examined the Israeli information, concluded there was insufficient evidence to corroborate these accusations, and decided to continue supporting them.

The US expressed its concern and said that it was in contact with the Israeli government to obtain more information about these organizations.

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Israeli Soldiers Open Fire inside a West Bank Hospital While Searching for Fighters’ Bodies

Israeli troops enter the complex of the Turkish hospital, where they searched for the bodies of those killed in an airstrike, Israel said was targeting fighters, in the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP)
Israeli troops enter the complex of the Turkish hospital, where they searched for the bodies of those killed in an airstrike, Israel said was targeting fighters, in the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP)
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Israeli Soldiers Open Fire inside a West Bank Hospital While Searching for Fighters’ Bodies

Israeli troops enter the complex of the Turkish hospital, where they searched for the bodies of those killed in an airstrike, Israel said was targeting fighters, in the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP)
Israeli troops enter the complex of the Turkish hospital, where they searched for the bodies of those killed in an airstrike, Israel said was targeting fighters, in the West Bank city of Tubas, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024. (AP)

Israeli soldiers opened fire inside a hospital in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday during a raid to seize the bodies of alleged fighters targeted in earlier airstrikes, a Palestinian doctor working at the hospital told The Associated Press.

Soldiers entered the Turkish Hospital complex in Tubas after the bodies of two Palestinians killed and one wounded in airstrikes in the northern West Bank on Tuesday were brought there, said Dr. Mahmoud Ghanam, who works in the hospital’s emergency department. The troops briefly handcuffed and arrested Ghanam and another doctor.

“The army entered in a brutal way, and they were shooting inside the emergency department,” said Ghanam. “They handcuffed us and took me and my colleague.”

The military confirmed that its troops were operating around the hospital searching for those targeted in the airstrikes, which they said had hit a militant cell near the Palestinian town of Al-Aqaba in the Jordan Valley. It denied that troops had entered the hospital building or fired gunshots inside.

The soldiers left after learning that the wounded man had been transferred to another hospital, Ghanam said. The soldiers wanted to take the bodies of the two men killed in the strike, but the hospital’s manager refused to hand over the bodies, Ghanam said.

Israeli raids on hospitals in the West Bank are rare but have grown more common since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. In Gaza, Israeli troops have systematically besieged, raided and damaged many hospitals.

About 800 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack out of Gaza ignited the war there. Israel has carried out near-daily military raids in the West Bank that it says are aimed at preventing attacks on Israelis — attacks which have also been on the rise.

Israel captured the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek all three territories for an independent state.