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Palestinians: Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank

Mourners carry the body of killed Palestinian doctor Abdullah Al-Ahma during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2022. (EPA)
Mourners carry the body of killed Palestinian doctor Abdullah Al-Ahma during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2022. (EPA)
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Palestinians: Israeli Forces Kill Man in West Bank

Mourners carry the body of killed Palestinian doctor Abdullah Al-Ahma during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2022. (EPA)
Mourners carry the body of killed Palestinian doctor Abdullah Al-Ahma during his funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin, 14 October 2022. (EPA)

The Palestinian Health Ministry said Monday that Israeli forces shot and killed a young man near the occupied West Bank city of Jenin.

The ministry said in a statement that the man died of a gunshot wound to the abdomen. Palestinian media identified the man as 18-year-old Mahmoud al-Saadi.

The violence was the latest in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem that has killed more than 130 Palestinians this year, making 2022 the deadliest since the UN started tracking fatalities in 2005.

The Israeli military had no comment about the incident. It said its troops were not operating in the Jenin area.

The army said it carried out arrest raids across the occupied West Bank on Monday. It said its soldiers apprehended three suspects. During an arrest south of Nablus, it said its troops came under fire, and shot back.

Israel says its almost nightly arrest raids in the West Bank — which began after Palestinian attacks killed 19 Israelis last spring — are needed to dismantle militant networks at a time when Palestinian security forces are unable or unwilling to do so.

The Palestinians say the raids undermine their security forces and are aimed at cementing Israel’s open-ended 55-year occupation of lands they want for their hoped-for state. Hundreds of Palestinians have been rounded up in such raids, with many placed in so-called administrative detention, which allows Israel to hold them without trial or charge.

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, and has since maintained a military occupation over the territory and settled more than 500,000 people there. The Palestinians seek the territory, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, for their hoped-for independent state.

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Arab World

Syria Kurdish Women Fighters Discuss Merger with Interior Ministry

Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said/Files
Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said/Files
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Syria Kurdish Women Fighters Discuss Merger with Interior Ministry

Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said/Files
Kurdish fighters gesture while carrying their parties' flags in Tel Abyad of Raqqa governorate after they said they took control of the area June 15, 2015. REUTERS/Rodi Said/Files

The Syrian Kurdish Women's Protection Units (YPJ) said on Thursday it had discussed with the interior ministry integrating their fighters into the government's forces.

The announcement came two days after the head of Kurdish fighters in Syria, Mazloum Abdi, announced the dissolution of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) -- which includes the YPJ -- under an agreement with Damascus.

The YPJ said in a statement that its leadership met on Wednesday with a delegation from the interior ministry, during which "the possibility of integrating the Women's Protection Units, as a special and organized force, into the structure of the interior ministry, was confirmed".

It said meetings would continue "in order to complete and finalize the integration process" as part of the agreement signed between Abdi and Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in January, AFP reported.

After Syria's conflict erupted in 2011, Kurdish women fighters fought on the front lines against the ISIS terror group, particularly in the 2016 battle to drive the extremists from Raqa, their de facto capital in Syria.

The women fighters later took on administrative and security responsibilities at the Al-Hol and Roj detention camps in northeast Syria for relatives of suspected jihadists, including thousands of foreigners.

While former Kurdish fighters are to be integrated into Syria's army, the military does not currently accept women in its ranks.

A Kurdish military source told AFP on condition of anonymity that 1,500 women fighters would be integrated into an interior ministry force.

On Tuesday, Abdi announced the end of the SDF's mission and "their dissolution as an independent military force" following "the completion of the process of integrating our forces into the brigades of the Syrian army".

The move closes a key chapter for Syria's Kurds after the SDF, backed by a US-led military coalition, spearheaded the fight against ISIS at the height of Syria's civil war.

Kurdish officials have previously said that at the height of the conflict, women made up around a third of all Kurdish forces.

Syria analyst Nanar Hawach of the International Crisis Group earlier this year estimated the overall number of Kurdish fighters at 20,000 to 30,000.

The SDF was the de facto army of the semi-autonomous administration which the Kurds set up in north and northeast Syria after seizing territory battling ISIS.

But Washington has grown close to Syria's new authorities who overthrew longtime ruler Bashar al-Sharaa in December 2024.

Arab World

Lebanon State Media Says Israeli Strike Kills Woman in South

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun shows smoke as it rises from the site of an Israeli controlled explosion in the village of Kfartibnit on August 24, 2026. (Photo by AFP) /
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun shows smoke as it rises from the site of an Israeli controlled explosion in the village of Kfartibnit on August 24, 2026. (Photo by AFP) /
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Lebanon State Media Says Israeli Strike Kills Woman in South

A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun shows smoke as it rises from the site of an Israeli controlled explosion in the village of Kfartibnit on August 24, 2026. (Photo by AFP) /
A photograph taken from the southern Lebanese area of Marjayoun shows smoke as it rises from the site of an Israeli controlled explosion in the village of Kfartibnit on August 24, 2026. (Photo by AFP) /

Lebanon said Israeli airstrikes on the country's south on Thursday killed a woman, as Israel's military said it struck Hezbollah targets after the Iran-backed group attacked its soldiers in the south overnight.

Lebanon's state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported a series of Israeli airstrikes including on the town of Arab Salim, where it said a woman who "had been married for 48 hours" was killed, with other people wounded.

Israel's military said in a statement that it struck "Hezbollah infrastructure" in south Lebanon, including weapons storage facilities.

It said the strikes came "in response" to Hezbollah activity overnight when the Iran-backed militants "launched two explosive drones" towards Israeli soldiers operating in the Ali al-Taher ridge, without causing casualties.

Israel has increased its attacks on south Lebanon in recent days, particularly in the Nabatieh area where the strategic Ali al-Taher ridge is located.

Israel has previously said Hezbollah fighters are holed up in "underground terror infrastructure" there.

On August 15, Lebanon said Israeli strikes killed 11 people including several children, as Israel's military said it launched raids in retaliation for a Hezbollah attack and that it killed two of the group's commanders.

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East conflict on March 2 by attacking Israel in support of its backer Iran, triggering massive Israeli airstrikes and a ground invasion that Lebanese authorities say have killed more than 4,300 people.

Israeli forces are operating inside a self-declared "security zone", which runs around 10 kilometres (six miles) deep inside Lebanese territory along the border.

Violence has dropped since a US-Iran memorandum of understanding on the broader conflict in June and a framework agreement between Israel and Lebanon later that month.

But Lebanon still reports Israeli strikes, artillery shelling and broad demolitions of civilian buildings in southern villages and towns.

Arab World

Israel Army Prepares West Bank Troop Reinforcements ahead of Jewish Holidays

TOPSHOT - Two girls walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Two girls walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)
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Israel Army Prepares West Bank Troop Reinforcements ahead of Jewish Holidays

TOPSHOT - Two girls walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)
TOPSHOT - Two girls walk past the rubble of collapsed buildings in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on August 25, 2026. (Photo by Bashar Taleb / AFP)

Israel's military chief on Thursday said he had ordered preparations for reinforcing troops in the occupied West Bank ahead of Jewish high holidays and as violence surges in the territory.

"Given the tensions in Judea and Samaria and the upcoming holiday period, I am ordering the elevation of readiness of an additional division headquarters in order to reinforce the forces in the area," Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir was quoted as saying in a military statement, using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

"In addition, preparations must be made for the immediate deployment of units and battalions to reinforce the area," he added.

The Israeli army “across all of its arrays, will maintain full, multi-front readiness throughout the holiday period -- there will be no reduction in operational forces."

The Jewish high holiday season begins in mid-September with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

Israel has since 1967 occupied the West Bank, where more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements that are illegal under international law. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians has increased dramatically since the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Speaking generally, Zamir said "many challenges are ahead of us".

"We are advancing operational procedures across all fronts, from Iran to Lebanon to Gaza, and remain on high alert in accordance with the sensitive multi-front situation," he said.