Israel Says it Intercepted Rocket Fired from Gaza

17 April 2022, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces following a protest in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails marking Palestinian Prisoner's Day. (dpa)
17 April 2022, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces following a protest in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails marking Palestinian Prisoner's Day. (dpa)
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Israel Says it Intercepted Rocket Fired from Gaza

17 April 2022, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces following a protest in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails marking Palestinian Prisoner's Day. (dpa)
17 April 2022, Palestinian Territories, Hebron: Palestinian protesters clash with Israeli forces following a protest in solidarity with prisoners in Israeli jails marking Palestinian Prisoner's Day. (dpa)

The Israeli military says it intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory on Monday.

It was the first time in months that a rocket has been fired into Israel from the blockaded Palestinian territory controlled by the Hamas movement. Israeli-Palestinian tensions have soared following clashes at a Jerusalem holy site and a wave of attacks and military raids.

Hours earlier, the leader of the "Islamic Jihad" group had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli "violations” in Jerusalem.

"The (Israeli) enemy’s threats to halt facilitations for Gaza can’t silence us from what’s happening in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank," said Ziad al-Nakhala, who is based outside the Palestinian territories.

"Islamic Jihad" boasts an arsenal of rockets, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all projectiles fired from the territory and usually carries out airstrikes in response.

Earlier on Monday, Israeli troops shot and wounded two Palestinians during clashes that broke out during an arrest raid in the occupied West Bank.

The Israeli military said it arrested 11 Palestinians in operations across the territory overnight. In a raid in the village of Yamun, near the city of Jenin, the army said dozens of Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives at troops.

Soldiers "responded with live ammunition" toward "suspects who hurled explosive devices," the military said. The Palestinian Health Ministry said two men were hospitalized after being critically wounded.

Israel has carried out a wave of arrest raids and other operations in recent weeks that it says are aimed at preventing further attacks after Palestinian assailants killed at least 14 people inside Israel. Two of the attackers came from in and around Jenin, which has long been a bastion of armed struggle against Israeli rule.

At least 25 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press count. Many had carried out attacks or were involved in clashes, but an unarmed woman and a lawyer who appears to have been a bystander were also among those killed.

Israel captured the West Bank, along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for a future independent state.

Tensions have run high in recent days, during the confluence of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the week-long Jewish holiday of Passover.

Palestinian protesters and Israeli police have clashed at a flashpoint Jerusalem holy site, known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

Jordan and Egypt, which made peace with Israel decades ago and coordinate with it on security matters, have condemned its actions at the holy site. Jordan - which serves as custodian of the site - summoned Israel's charge d'affaires in protest on Monday.

An Arab party that made history last year by joining Israel's governing coalition on Sunday suspended its participation - a largely symbolic act that nevertheless reflected the sensitivity of the holy site, which is at the emotional heart of the century-old conflict.

Israel says security forces were forced to enter the compound after Palestinians stockpiled stones and other objects and hurled rocks in the direction of an adjacent Jewish holy site. The Palestinians and Arab states accused the police of storming the site in violation of longstanding arrangements known as the status quo.

Protests and clashes in and around the shrine last year helped fuel the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas.



Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Israeli Reservist Rams Vehicle into Palestinian Man Praying in West Bank

Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)
Israeli security forces secure a street as they leave the Palestinian village of Bizariya, in the occupied West Bank, where Israeli authorities demolished the house of a Palestinian man killed in July after he and another man reportedly killed an Israeli settler on the same day, on December 24, 2025. (AFP)

An Israeli reservist soldier rammed his vehicle into a Palestinian man as he prayed on a roadside in ​the occupied West Bank on Thursday, after earlier firing shots in the area, the Israeli military said.

"Footage was received of an armed individual running over a Palestinian individual," it said in a statement, adding the individual was a reservist ‌and his ‌military service had ‌been terminated.

The ⁠reservist ​acted "in severe ‌violation of his authority" and his weapon had been confiscated, the military said.

Israeli media reported that he was being held under house arrest.

The Israeli police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The ⁠Palestinian man went to hospital for checks after ‌the attack, but was unhurt ‍and is now ‍at home.

Video which aired on Palestinian ‍TV shows a man in civilian clothing with a gun slung over his shoulder driving an off-road vehicle into a man praying on ​the side of the road.

This year ​was one of the most violent on ⁠record for Israeli civilian attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, according to United Nations data that shows more than 750 injuries.

More than a thousand Palestinians were killed in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and October 17, 2025, mostly in operations by security forces and some by settler violence, according to the UN In ‌the same period, 57 Israelis were killed in Palestinian attacks.


Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna Claims Responsibility

Syrian security forces stand inside a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion at a mosque as the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said, in Homs, Syria December 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Ahmed al-Najjar
Syrian security forces stand inside a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion at a mosque as the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said, in Homs, Syria December 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Ahmed al-Najjar
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Deadly Blast Hits Mosque in Syria’s Homs, Saraya Ansar al-Sunna Claims Responsibility

Syrian security forces stand inside a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion at a mosque as the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said, in Homs, Syria December 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Ahmed al-Najjar
Syrian security forces stand inside a damaged mosque after several people were killed in an explosion at a mosque as the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said, in Homs, Syria December 26, 2025. REUTERS/Ali Ahmed al-Najjar

A bombing at a mosque in Syria during Friday prayers killed at least eight people and wounded 18 others, authorities said.

Images released by Syria’s state-run Arab News Agency showed blood on the mosque’s carpets, holes in the walls, shattered windows and fire damage. The Imam Ali bin Abi Talib Mosque is located in Homs, Syria's third-largest city.

SANA, citing a security source, said that preliminary investigations indicate that explosive devices were planted inside the mosque. Authorities were searching for the perpetrators, who have not yet been identified, and a security cordon was placed around the building, Syria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

In a statement on Telegram, the Saraya Ansar al-Sunna said its fighters "detonated a number of explosive devices" in the mosque.

The same group had previously claimed a suicide attack in June in which a gunman opened fire and then detonated an explosive vest inside a Greek Orthodox church in Dweil’a, on the outskirts of Damascus, killing 25 people as worshippers prayed on a Sunday.

Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Lebanon, condemned the attack. 
 


Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
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Fuel Shortage Forces Gaza Hospital to Suspend Most Services

The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)
The sun sets behind a makeshift tent camp for displaced Palestinians set up in an area of al-Bureij camp, in the central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP)

A major Gaza hospital has suspended several services because of a critical fuel shortage in the devastated Palestinian territory, which continues to face a severe humanitarian crisis, it said.

Devastated by more than two years of war, the Al-Awda Hospital in the central Gaza district of Nuseirat cares for around 60 in-patients and receives nearly 1,000 people seeking medical treatment each day.

"Most services have been temporarily stopped due to a shortage of the fuel needed for the generators," said Ahmed Mehanna, a senior official involved in managing the hospital.

"Only essential departments remain operational: the emergency unit, maternity ward and pediatrics."

To keep these services running, the hospital has been forced to rent a small generator, he added.

Under normal conditions, Al-Awda Hospital consumes between 1,000 and 1,200 liters of diesel per day. At present, however, it has only 800 liters available.

"We stress that this shutdown is temporary and linked to the availability of fuel," Mehanna said, warning that a prolonged fuel shortage "would pose a direct threat to the hospital's ability to deliver basic services".

He urged local and international organizations to intervene swiftly to ensure a steady supply of fuel.

Despite a fragile truce observed since October 10, the Gaza Strip remains engulfed in a severe humanitarian crisis.

While the ceasefire agreement stipulated the entry of 600 aid trucks per day into Gaza, only 100 to 300 carrying humanitarian assistance can currently enter, according to the United Nations and non-governmental organizations.

The remaining convoys largely transport commercial goods that remain inaccessible to most of Gaza's 2.2 million people.

- Health hard hit -

On a daily basis, the vast majority of Gaza's residents rely on aid from UN agencies and international NGOs for survival.

Gaza's health sector has been among the hardest hit by the war.

During the fighting, the Israeli miliary repeatedly struck hospitals and medical centers across Gaza, accusing Hamas of operating command centers there, an allegation the group denied.

International medical charity Doctors Without Borders now manages roughly one-third of Gaza's 2,300 hospital beds, while all five stabilization centers for children suffering from severe malnutrition are supported by international NGOs.

The war in Gaza was sparked on October 7, 2023, following an unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.

In Israel's ensuing military campaign in Gaza, at least 70,942 people - also mostly civilians - have been killed, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.