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Fatah Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Israel Aims to Dismantle Palestinian Authority

Nuseirat camp, south of the Gaza Strip (EPA)
Nuseirat camp, south of the Gaza Strip (EPA)
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Fatah Official to Asharq Al-Awsat: Israel Aims to Dismantle Palestinian Authority

Nuseirat camp, south of the Gaza Strip (EPA)
Nuseirat camp, south of the Gaza Strip (EPA)

Israel assassinated nine Palestinians in an attack on a vehicle near Balata Camp in Nablus in the northern West Bank and a group of young men in Tulkarm Camp.

A drone attack on a vehicle near Balata camp targeted the leader of the al-Aqsa Brigades affiliated with the Fatah movement, Abdullah Abu Shalal, and killed him along with four of his companions.

The Israeli army published a video of the attack, which turned the vehicle into rubble and left charred bodies.

The Israeli military confirmed it carried out an airstrike with the Shin Bet during the Tulkarem raid, saying the cell headed by Abu Shalal was killed near the camp.

Israel claimed the unit was responsible for one of the two largest networks in the Judea and Samaria region of the West Bank.

The statement accused Abu Shalal of being responsible for several operations carried out in the past year, including a shooting attack in Jerusalem, which resulted in the injury of two Israeli citizens.

The army accused Abu Shalal of planting an explosive device against army forces last October, saying he received funding and directions from Iran.

Another drone killed four Palestinians in the Tulkarm camp shortly after the assassination of young men in the Balata camp.

Since Oct. 7, when Hamas carried out the "al-Aqsa Flood" Operation against Israel, the army has stormed most of the camps in the West Bank, killing and arresting Palestinians, and engaging in clashes in Jenin, Tulkarm, Balata, Jalazoun, Askar, Nour Shams, and al-Fara'a.

The Israeli army has deliberately destroyed the roads and infrastructure and demolished homes.

Fatah official Mounir al-Jaghoub described the situation as an open war on the camps in the West Bank and Gaza.

During an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Jagoub said Israel wants to remove the camps because they represent the symbol of Palestinians' return to their land.

The camps remind the people to return to the lands of 1948, said the official, asserting that the war in the West Bank is no less dangerous than the war in Gaza.

Israel has fully barricaded the West Bank, turning it into ghettos after erecting iron gates, roadblocks, and earth mounds. It has also tightened its measures at military checkpoints.

At the beginning of the war, Israel feared the West Bank would turn into a third front. It did not even wait for Palestinian action and attacked with full force.

As of Wednesday, Israel has killed 43 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of 2024 and 362 since the beginning of the war in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian presidency spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said Israel's daily killings in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a comprehensive war of genocide against the Palestinian people.

Abu Rudeina added that the Israeli occupation is trying in various ways to drag the entire region into violence and destruction by continuing its policies of killing, destroying, stealing Palestinian land, and seizing Palestinian funds.

However, a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that what was happening was similar to an attempt to reoccupy the West Bank.

He warned that Israel engaged in the war to liquidate the Palestinian cause because Tel Aviv believed that the opportunity was ripe for that.

The camps, especially in the northern West Bank, had sparked a new confrontation long before Oct. 7, when gunmen in the Jenin camp formed the Jenin Brigade to confront Israeli forces with weapons.

The clashes in the West Bank are led by young men who are not affiliated with any organizations and have become popular heroes and symbols on social networks.

According to Israel, they are frustrated with the conditions in the West Bank, and they took advantage of the Palestinian Authority's inability to control the situation.

Jagoub believes Israel seeks to dismantle the Authority in Ramallah rather than confront it, saying the war aims to terminate the Oslo agreement.

The official said Tel Aviv aims to portray the PA as powerless and unnecessary and unable to protect its people, hoping to turn Palestinians against it.

They want to dismantle it from within instead of bombing its headquarters, besieging its president, and killing its members, he warned.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has several times launched a significant attack on the Authority, describing it as weak and failed, then said it was not fit to rule.

Netanyahu declared that the biggest mistake that Israel made was signing the Oslo Accords.

Several Israeli ministers have echoed Netanyahu's statements, and some of them, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, went further, demanding the displacement of the Palestinians.

However, Defense Minister Yoav Galant opposed the statement, declaring a vital Authority is in Israel's interest and calling for help to maintain stability in the West Bank.

Jagoub mocked Galant's statements, saying the Israeli army is killing Palestinians under the Minister's orders.

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Arab World

Yemeni Forces Consolidate West Coast Gains, Reinforce Bab al-Mandab Positions

Yemeni government fighters sit in the back of a vehicle near Dhubab, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, in this still image taken from video released October 5, 2026. Southern Giants Brigades/Handout via REUTERS
Yemeni government fighters sit in the back of a vehicle near Dhubab, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, in this still image taken from video released October 5, 2026. Southern Giants Brigades/Handout via REUTERS
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Yemeni Forces Consolidate West Coast Gains, Reinforce Bab al-Mandab Positions

Yemeni government fighters sit in the back of a vehicle near Dhubab, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, in this still image taken from video released October 5, 2026. Southern Giants Brigades/Handout via REUTERS
Yemeni government fighters sit in the back of a vehicle near Dhubab, Taiz Governorate, Yemen, in this still image taken from video released October 5, 2026. Southern Giants Brigades/Handout via REUTERS

Yemeni armed forces consolidated gains along the western coast and reinforced positions overlooking the Bab al-Mandab Strait as they pushed ahead in al-Wazi'iyah district in western Taiz province under Operation “Dawn of Yemen.” Fighting with the Houthis continued in the southern Taiz countryside and on fronts around the city.

The armed forces said they had neutralized more than 1,800 Houthi fighters in recent hours. Army figures put Houthi losses at nearly 10,000 killed or wounded over two weeks of air and ground strikes across multiple fronts.

Nation Shield forces, the Giants Brigades and the Joint Forces took full control of the Kahboub front, according to Yemeni military media. The advance strengthens government forces’ hold on heights overlooking Bab al-Mandab and boosts their ability to secure the strategic corridor as operations continue along the western coast.

Taiz province’s emergency committee suspended classes at public, community and private schools, institutes, colleges and universities in districts that have come under Houthi control. It also placed government employees there on temporary leave, citing exceptional security conditions.

The United Nations warned of a worsening humanitarian situation in Taiz as Houthi attacks spread, displacement rises and aid access faces growing restrictions. Major roads remain closed, adding to pressure on services and limited resources.

The eastern road into Taiz city remains closed, the United Nations said in a recent report. Road closures between Aden and Taiz have disrupted a major supply route from warehouses in Aden, hampering aid agencies’ ability to reach those affected and meet growing needs.

Arab World

Iraq Rejects Syrian Request to Repatriate 4,000 Suspected ISIS Detainees

Members of the Iraqi border forces patrol along a concrete wall on the Iraqi-Syrian border, in the town of al-Baghuz in the Al-Qaim district of western Iraq, on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Members of the Iraqi border forces patrol along a concrete wall on the Iraqi-Syrian border, in the town of al-Baghuz in the Al-Qaim district of western Iraq, on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
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Iraq Rejects Syrian Request to Repatriate 4,000 Suspected ISIS Detainees

Members of the Iraqi border forces patrol along a concrete wall on the Iraqi-Syrian border, in the town of al-Baghuz in the Al-Qaim district of western Iraq, on January 21, 2026. (AFP)
Members of the Iraqi border forces patrol along a concrete wall on the Iraqi-Syrian border, in the town of al-Baghuz in the Al-Qaim district of western Iraq, on January 21, 2026. (AFP)

Iraq has rejected Syria's request to repatriate thousands of suspected ISIS members transferred from Syrian detention centers to Iraqi custody earlier this year, a senior Iraqi security official said on Wednesday.

Iraqi National Security Advisor Qasim al-Aboudi said that a meeting had been held recently between Syria, Iraq and the United States to discuss the fate of the prisoners.

Al-Aboudi said Syria had requested that the 4,000 Syrian prisoners be handed over to be tried in Syria, but Iraq refused. Iraq has repatriated about 50 Syrian detainees who were determined not to be ISIS members, he told The Associated Press, while the Syrian prisoners remaining in Iraq include about 400 who are believed to be high-level members of the extremist group.

“Iraq is conducting investigations, and anyone proved to have committed crimes in Iraq will be tried under Iraqi law,” he said.

Some prisoners could later be transferred to their home countries to complete their sentences, he said.

Syria did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

More than 5,700 prisoners with alleged ISIS ties — including some 4,000 Syrians — were transferred from northeast Syria to Iraq after fighting broke out in January between Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which had long guarded the detention centers where they were held.

Some ISIS-linked prisoners managed to flee during the chaos of the clashes, and there were fears that a larger-scale escape would take place. While the extremist group lost control of the territory it once seized in Iraq and Syria years ago, its cells still periodically carry out attacks in both countries.

The discussions about the prisoners' fate come as the United States has ended a 12-year mission to fight ISIS in Iraq, with the last US troops withdrawing from the country last month.

Al-Aboudi said Iraq has asked for financial support from the US and other countries taking part in the global coalition against ISIS to help with the costs of housing the prisoners.

“Iraq asked for an allocation of $500 million. The coalition promised support, but Iraq is still waiting,” he said.

A US defense official and the office of Tom Barrack, the US envoy to Syria and Iraq, referred questions about the prisoners to Iraqi and Syrian authorities.

Many of the prisoners transferred to Iraq had been held in Syria for years without charges. Rights groups have raised concerns about detention conditions in both countries.

Arab World

Arab Parliament President Stresses Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia Pose Direct Threat to Regional Security

Arab Parliament President Stresses Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia Pose Direct Threat to Regional Security
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Arab Parliament President Stresses Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia Pose Direct Threat to Regional Security

Arab Parliament President Stresses Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia Pose Direct Threat to Regional Security

President of the Arab Parliament Mohammed bin Ahmed Al-Yamahi stressed that repeated terrorist attacks by the Houthi militia against Saudi Arabia and its civilian and oil facilities pose a direct threat to regional security.

During his speech at the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Arusha, United Republic of Tanzania, Al-Yamahi addressed Iranian attacks that targeted several Arab countries and threatened civilians, infrastructure, and vital facilities, SPA reported.

He also discussed regional escalation and related threats to the security of Arab countries. He called on the international community to move beyond condemnation and take measures to protect states and their sovereignty and compel the parties to respect international law.