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Palestinians Demand Arrest of Israeli Official Visiting Washington

A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
    London, Ramallah - Asharq Al-Awsat
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Palestinians Demand Arrest of Israeli Official Visiting Washington

A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)
A delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel survey the aftermath of a rampage by settlers in Huwara, near the West Bank city of Nablus on Wednesday, March 1, 2023 (AP)

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry on Thursday asked Washington to arrest a visiting Israeli official who called for wiping out the Palestinian village of Huwara.

“The Foreign Ministry demands the US administration to arrest the fascist terrorist Davidi Ben Zion, the deputy head of the Shomron Regional Council, who is currently in the United States and who made the original call to burn and wipe out Huwara (in Nablus),” the Ministry said in a statement published by the German news agency.

The ministry said that, “instead of asking Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to apologize for Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s disgusting and terrorist statements, the US administration should have arrested the original author of that call.”

The US State Department on Wednesday condemned Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s statements in which he called for the Palestinian village of Huwara to be “wiped out.” The Department said the remarks were “repugnant, irresponsible and disgusting.”

Speaking at a business conference on Wednesday, Smotrich was asked why he ‘liked’ a tweet on Sunday evening posted by Ben Zion calling for the destruction of the village.

The minister said that he liked the tweet “because I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out. I think the State of Israel should do it.”

The call came just days after Israeli settlers attacked the occupied West Bank village.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh described Smotrich's statements as “terrorist and racist,” saying they constitute a dangerous threat against the Palestinian people in the occupied territories.

Shtayyeh added that the Israeli minister's statements “are sufficient to bring him to international justice, considered to be an official incitement to commit new massacres against Palestinians.”

He then called on the UN, the EU and all international organizations to condemn the Israeli minister’s statements and to activate international resolutions that boycott Israel, hold it accountable for its “crimes” and not allow it to escape punishment.

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Arab World

Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
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Israeli Forces Surround Lebanon’s Khiam Ahead of Storming it

Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)
Smoke rises as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the village of al-Khiam in southern Lebanon, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, northern Israel, 22 November 2024, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel. (EPA)

Israeli forces have blocked supply routes to the southern Lebanese border city of al-Khiam ahead of storming it.

They have also surrounded the strategic city with Hezbollah fighters still inside, launching artillery and air attacks against them.

Hezbollah fighters have been holding out in Khiam for 25 days. The capture of the city would be significant and allow Israeli forces easier passage into southern Lebanon.

Field sources said Israeli forces have already entered some neighborhoods of Khiam from its eastern and southern outskirts, expanding their incursion into its northern and eastern sectors to fully capture the city.

They cast doubt on claims that the city has been fully captured, saying fighting is still taking place deeper inside its streets and alleys, citing the ongoing artillery fire and drone and air raids.

Israel has already cut off Hezbollah’s supply routes by seizing control of Bourj al-Mamlouk, Tall al-Nahas and olive groves in al-Qlaa in the Marayoun region. Its forces have also fanned out to the west towards the Litani River.

The troops have set up a “line of fire” spanning at least seven kms around Khiam to deter anti-tank attacks from Hezbollah and to launch artillery, drone and aerial attacks, said the sources.

The intense pressure has forced Hezbollah to resort to suicide drone attacks against Israeli forces.

Hezbollah’s al-Manar television said Israeli forces tried to carry out a new incursion towards Khiam’s northern neighborhoods.

Lebanon’s National News Agency reported that since Friday night, Israeli forces have been using “all forms of weapons in their attempt to capture Khiam, which Israel views as a strategic gateway through which it can make rapid ground advances.”

It reported an increase in air and artillery attacks in the past two days as the forces try to storm the city.

The troops are trying to advance on Khiam by first surrounding it from all sides under air cover, it continued.

They are also booby-trapping some homes and buildings and then destroying them, similar to what they have done in other southern towns, such as Adeisseh, Yaround, Aitaroun and Mais al-Jabal.

Khiam holds symbolic significance to the Lebanese people because it was the first city liberated following Israel’s implementation of United Nations Security Council 425 on May 25, 2000, that led to its withdrawal from the South in a day that Hezbollah has since declared Liberation Day.