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Israeli Raid Leaves 4 Palestinians Dead in West Bank Camp

A picture shows the Jalame checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli occupied West Bank on September 14, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows the Jalame checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli occupied West Bank on September 14, 2022. (AFP)
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Israeli Raid Leaves 4 Palestinians Dead in West Bank Camp

A picture shows the Jalame checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli occupied West Bank on September 14, 2022. (AFP)
A picture shows the Jalame checkpoint near the Palestinian city of Jenin in the Israeli occupied West Bank on September 14, 2022. (AFP)

Israeli forces killed four Palestinian gunmen on Wednesday in a flashpoint town that has been a focus of a half-year-long campaign of raids in the occupied West Bank following a series of street attacks within Israel.

The strike in Jenin targeted two Palestinians suspected of carrying out attacks, Israeli police said. They opened fire and set off a bomb as commandos closed in, and were shot, it said. Palestinian medics said 40 people were wounded.

"The Dens of Lions", a Palestinian umbrella group formed of militants from different factions, said one of the slain gunmen also worked for the security services of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under interim peace deals with Israel from the early 1990s.

Israel and the United States have been pressing the PA to do more to boost security. The PA accuses Israel of undermining its credibility, eight years after US-sponsored negotiations on Palestinian statehood stalled.

The Dens of Lions identified a second man killed in Jenin on Wednesday as the brother of a Palestinian who shot dead three people in Tel Aviv in April - among a series of street attacks within Israel that triggered its intensified West Bank raids.

More than 70 Palestinians, among them gunmen and civilians, have been killed in Israel's Operation Breakwater campaign.

A third gunman was killed by the Israeli forces in Jenin on Wednesday, the Dens of Lions said. The Israeli police statement said commandos had traded fire with other gunmen.

US-brokered peace talks between the sides, aimed at establishing a Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, collapsed in 2014, while Israel has expanded settlements in several areas. Gaza is ruled by the Hamas movement that is opposed to coexistence with Israel.

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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
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Italy Plans to Return Ambassador to Syria to Reflect New Diplomatic Developments, Minister Says

Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)
Italy's Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani speaks while meeting with members of the G7, on July 11, 2024, during the NATO summit in Washington. (AP)

Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country.

Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.

Peaceful protests against the Assad government — part of the so-called “Arab Spring” popular uprisings that spread across some of the Middle East — were met by a brutal crackdown, and the uprising quickly spiraled into a full-blown civil war.

The conflict was further complicated by the intervention of foreign forces on all sides and a rising militancy, first by al-Qaida-linked groups and then the ISIS group until its defeat on the battlefield in 2019.

The war, which has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million, is now largely frozen, despite ongoing low-level fighting.

The country is effectively carved up into areas controlled by the Damascus-based government of Assad, various opposition groups and Syrian Kurdish forces.

In the early days of the conflict, many Western and Arab countries cut off relations with Syria, including Italy, which has since managed Syria-related diplomacy through its embassy in Beirut.

However, since Assad has regained control over most of the territory, neighboring Arab countries have gradually restored relations, with the most symbolically significant move coming last year when Syria was re-admitted to the Arab League.

Tajani said Thursday the EU’s policy in Syria should be adapted to the “development of the situation,” adding that Italy has received support from Austria, Croatia, Greece, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Slovakia.

However, the US and allied countries in Europe have largely continued to hold firm in their stance against Assad’s government, due to concerns over human rights violations.