Body of Israeli Citizen, Taken by Palestinians from Hospital, Being Returned

An Israeli army checkpoint controls ta road leading to the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, April 12, 2022.  (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
An Israeli army checkpoint controls ta road leading to the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
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Body of Israeli Citizen, Taken by Palestinians from Hospital, Being Returned

An Israeli army checkpoint controls ta road leading to the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, April 12, 2022.  (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
An Israeli army checkpoint controls ta road leading to the West Bank city of Jenin, Tuesday, April 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

The Israeli military said Thursday that the body of an Israeli teen that was taken by Palestinians from a West Bank hospital is being returned to his family. The army said they coordinated with the Palestinian Authority to bring his body.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said he would close a number or crossing after Palestinians militants refused to respond to the international and Palestinian calls to return the body.

Relatives of Tiran Pero said Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin entered the hospital where Pero was seeking treatment after a car crash. Pero was from Israel’s Druze Arab minority.

The incident threatened to ratchet up already boiling tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.



18,000 Syrians Returned Home from Jordan Since Assad’s Fall

Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
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18,000 Syrians Returned Home from Jordan Since Assad’s Fall

Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)
Syrians work at a vegetables market in Aleppo, on December 23, 2024. (Photo by Aaref WATAD / AFP)

About 18,000 Syrians have crossed into their country from Jordan since the government of Bashar Assad was toppled earlier this month, Jordanian authorities said on Thursday.
Interior Minister Mazen Al-Faraya told state TV channel Al-Mamlaka that “around 18,000 Syrians have returned to their country between the fall of the regime of Bashar Assad on December 8, 2024 until Thursday.”
He said the returnees included 2,300 refugees registered with the United Nations.
Amman says it has hosted about 1.3 million Syrians who fled their country since civil war broke out in 2011, with 650,000 formally registered with the United Nations.

Earlier this month, Al-Faraya said that security circumstances now allow Syrian refugees to return to their country.

"What prevented refugees from returning to their country was the security issue and now this has changed,” he said.

The minister said information suggests that security conditions on the northern border of the Kingdom with Syria are stable, adding that what is happening today in Syria represents "the end of a tragedy and years of suffering."

The Jaber-Nasib border crossing, which is located about 80 kilometers west of Amman, is currently the only functioning crossing between the two countries.