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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

Hamas Silent on Killings: Ceasefire Restraint or Inability to Retaliate?

Palestinians carry the body of Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade, after he was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis on Wednesday. (AP)
Palestinians carry the body of Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade, after he was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis on Wednesday. (AP)
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Hamas Silent on Killings: Ceasefire Restraint or Inability to Retaliate?

Palestinians carry the body of Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade, after he was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis on Wednesday. (AP)
Palestinians carry the body of Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade, after he was killed in an Israeli strike in Khan Younis on Wednesday. (AP)

After killing the most prominent members of the Qassam Brigades’ military council during the Gaza war, Israel has turned its focus to the Hamas armed wing’s second-tier commanders, who now oversee military operations in the enclave.

Over the past week, Israel killed Mohammed al-Yazouri and Nael Abu Obeid, commanders of the Khan Younis and Rafah brigades, in separate strikes on the Mawasi area of Khan Younis in southern Gaza. Both were among the Qassam Brigades’ most prominent commanders in the south.

Al-Yazouri took command of the Khan Younis Brigade shortly after commanders Izz al-Din al-Haddad and Mohammed Ouda were killed in separate strikes less than 10 days apart in May.

Hudhayfa Abu Muammar was killed alongside al-Yazouri. A Qassam Brigades engineer close to its senior commanders, Abu Muammar, was responsible for developing the group’s military capabilities.

Abu Obeid took command of the Rafah Brigade after Mohammed Shabana was killed in May 2025, when Israel struck a tunnel in Khan Younis where he was with Mohammed Sinwar, the Qassam Brigades’ commander-in-chief.

Sinwar had succeeded Mohammed Deif, who was killed in an Israeli strike on July 13, 2024, alongside Rafa Salama, the former commander of the Khan Younis Brigade.

Hamas and its armed wing have notably confined their responses to mourning the commanders, omitting the threats of retaliation common in their statements during and before the war.

Some observers say Hamas has been weakened and can no longer respond militarily. Others say it is merely seeking to avoid provoking a harsher Israeli response or giving Israel a pretext to resume the war.

Israeli media

Israeli media have portrayed Hamas as incapable of responding.

Israel’s Channel 12 said the group feared Israel’s reaction and did not intend to retaliate for the killings, adding that it had “come to realize that the Israeli military has the upper hand on the battlefield.”

Haaretz quoted a former senior Palestinian security official in Gaza as saying Hamas could no longer operate freely in response to the killing of its senior commanders.

Signs of this had emerged even before the October 2025 ceasefire, the official said. Rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel had become “almost nonexistent” during the final months of the war, and there had been no major military operations.

Yedioth Ahronoth quoted Israeli military Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir as telling a closed-door security meeting attended by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz that Hamas had been defeated and Israel had prevailed in the confrontation.

An official in the military intelligence directorate, however, warned that Hamas still posed a threat and was seeking to rebuild its capabilities and restore its rule.

Katz said Hamas faced a “difficult strategic reality,” adding that Israel would “continue working to achieve its security objectives and ensure that the threat of Oct. 7 is not repeated.”

“We have eliminated Hamas leaders inside and outside Gaza, and even in Iran,” Katz said. “We will not allow Iran or any other party to arm Hamas again.”

Hamas’ Priorities

Four Hamas sources — a political official abroad, another source in Gaza and two field operatives in the enclave — separately told Asharq Al-Awsat that the group and its armed wing had other priorities, chiefly denying Israel any pretext to exploit the situation and resume the war.

The political source abroad said there was “a clear decision not to respond to any assassination, because what Israel wants is a reaction that would lend credibility to its narrative that Gaza contains real weapons capable of affecting it and that these weapons must be removed by force.”

The Gaza-based source said Hamas did not want to drag the enclave’s residents back into war. Palestinian factions had therefore reached broad understandings on the need to avoid any action that could be described as “provocative” and might trigger an unpredictable Israeli response.

Both sources said Hamas remained committed to the ceasefire agreement reached last year and to understandings with the Board of Peace on the second phase.

The problem lay with Israel, they said, accusing it of continuing to violate the agreement and refusing to honor any deal.

They said Hamas, in coordination with the other factions, had decided to move forward with the agreement, including transferring governing authority to the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and placing all weapons exclusively under its authority, rather than under the control of Israel or the United States.

Israel’s obstruction of the agreement was preventing that process from beginning, they said, adding that Israel was still blocking the committee from entering Gaza and assuming its duties.

The two field sources said Hamas and other factions retained what they described as “limited” capabilities, including small arms, explosive devices and anti-vehicle munitions that could be used to carry out attacks.

The political and military leaderships had decided, however, to preserve calm for as long as possible and prepare only for defensive, not offensive, operations.

One source said the decision reflected a desire to protect civilians, rather than fear of confronting Israel. It was also intended to prevent Israel from exploiting any attack to displace Palestinians, force them to move from one area to another and destroy more of the homes still standing in Gaza.

“The prevailing belief in Israel that Hamas has been defeated is merely a slogan with no value on the ground,” the source said.

“Hamas would rather spare Gaza’s residents the horrors of war than disprove that slogan through an attack whose outcome would have no significance at this time.”

Board of Peace Criticism

Separately, Israel’s i24NEWS quoted a Board of Peace official as criticizing Israel’s current strategy in Gaza: killing commanders while armed operatives remain and Hamas continues to govern.

The Board of Peace seeks to dismantle Hamas and eliminate it completely, while Israel is killing operatives without destroying the movement itself, the official said, according to the channel.

The official said Israel’s policy resembled the approach that prevailed before Oct. 7, 2023.

Dismantling Hamas, the official said, would require 14 days of calm, except for action needed to counter immediate threats; the Israeli government’s full cooperation with all preparations and logistical measures required for voluntary disarmament; and adherence to the Board of Peace’s deadline for halting attacks.

That would allow the parties to agree on a timetable for beginning to bring weapons under a single authority, as agreed in Cairo, the official said.

“If Hamas begins dismantling itself quickly and provides the coordinates of all the tunnels, that would be excellent,” the official added. “If it does not disarm, the Israeli military will receive international support to do so by force.”

Arab World

UN: Yemen Situation Rapidly Evolving as Restrictions Hamper Access to Western Coast

The United Nations said the latest events had displaced more than 100,000 people since the start of the month (AP)
The United Nations said the latest events had displaced more than 100,000 people since the start of the month (AP)
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UN: Yemen Situation Rapidly Evolving as Restrictions Hamper Access to Western Coast

The United Nations said the latest events had displaced more than 100,000 people since the start of the month (AP)
The United Nations said the latest events had displaced more than 100,000 people since the start of the month (AP)

More than 100,000 people have been displaced in Yemen since the beginning of September, most of them heading to the provinces of Taiz and Lahj, the United Nations said.

The pace of displacement has risen sharply since Sept. 3, Laurent Bukera, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Bukera said the United Nations was prepared to respond to further waves of displacement and an expected increase in humanitarian needs in Yemen as fighting continues along the western coast. More than 60,000 displaced people had received assistance through the Rapid Response Mechanism as of Sept. 15.

The movement of humanitarian workers has been affected in several areas along the western coast, he said, warning that insecurity, movement restrictions and communications outages continue to hamper access to some locations.

Bukera stressed the urgent need to ensure safe and sustained humanitarian access, provide safe passage for those fleeing the fighting, and secure the resources needed for a rapid response as needs continue to grow.

Displacement surges

The latest figures from the International Organization for Migration show that more than 100,000 people have been displaced since the start of September, Bukera said.

The situation remains fluid, with the number of internally displaced people expected to rise.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners are supporting the most vulnerable people across Yemen, particularly those displaced, wherever security, access and available resources allow.

UNICEF said the fighting displaced more than 57,000 children in just two weeks and cut children off from essential services. It warned that the escalation was deepening a crisis in which 12.2 million children need humanitarian assistance.

Urgent needs, dwindling supplies

The most urgent needs include emergency shelter, household essentials, food, safe water, sanitation, emergency health care, protection and cash assistance, Bukera said.

Many of those displaced were already living in highly vulnerable conditions. Some have been forced to flee more than once.

Humanitarian response capacity is under severe pressure as supplies run low and funding remains scarce, Bukera said. Insecurity and movement restrictions are making it harder to reach people quickly.

Major gaps remain in shelter, water and sanitation, food security, health, nutrition, protection and cash assistance.

The Rapid Response Mechanism is working under a planning scenario designed to address any sharp increase in needs, Bukera said.

Aid workers and warehouses at risk

Asked about the change of control in Mokha, Bukera said the immediate priority was the safety and well-being of civilians, particularly those forced to flee or cut off from essential services and humanitarian aid by the recent fighting.

UN agencies are assessing needs and adapting their response to keep aid flowing, he said.

The safety of humanitarian workers and the security of offices, warehouses and other humanitarian assets remain a “matter of grave concern.”

Humanitarian workers, facilities and assets must be respected and protected at all times, Bukera said. Aid must also be allowed to move safely and without obstruction so life-saving relief can reach those in need.

Taiz and Lahj take in most of the displaced

Humanitarian partners are delivering immediate aid in affected areas and communities receiving displaced people, including Taiz and Lahj, which have taken in the largest numbers.

Registration is continuing as displacement and humanitarian needs rise.

More than 60,000 internally displaced people had received aid through the Rapid Response Mechanism by Sept. 15, in addition to other support for displaced families, Bukera said.

Access remains difficult in some locations because of insecurity, movement restrictions and communications outages.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs remains in contact with the relevant authorities to facilitate aid deliveries and secure safe passage for civilians.

UN prepares for wider crisis

The United Nations is responding to the current crisis while preparing for further waves of displacement and mounting humanitarian needs, Bukera said.

Humanitarian partners are developing planning scenarios covering rapid-response assistance, multipurpose cash aid and multisector support, including food supplies, to meet the needs of large numbers of people.

Bukera called for civilians and civilian infrastructure, including displacement sites, roads, schools and hospitals to be protected at all times.

He renewed calls for safe passage for those fleeing the fighting and for the resources needed to keep pace with the escalating humanitarian needs.

Arab World

Arab Interior Ministers Council Condemns Houthi UAV Launch Toward Makkah

Arab Interior Ministers Council Condemns Houthi UAV Launch Toward Makkah
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Arab Interior Ministers Council Condemns Houthi UAV Launch Toward Makkah

Arab Interior Ministers Council Condemns Houthi UAV Launch Toward Makkah

The General Secretariat of the Arab Interior Ministers Council strongly condemned reports that the terrorist Houthi militia launched a UAV toward Makkah on Wednesday.

The Royal Saudi Air Defense Forces successfully intercepted and destroyed the UAV before it entered Makkah's prohibited airspace, SPA reported.

In a statement, the General Secretariat said: “While expressing its firm condemnation and absolute denunciation of this cowardly terrorist attack, which constitutes a blatant violation of the rules of international law, a flagrant breach of the sanctity of the Grand Mosque and the holy sites, and a provocation to the feelings of all Muslims, the General Secretariat affirms its full solidarity and complete support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the measures it takes to protect its territory and holy sites, preserve its security and stability, and safeguard the safety of its citizens and residents.”