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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

US Embassy in Beirut Warns of Possible Iran Threat to Universities in Lebanon

People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
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US Embassy in Beirut Warns of Possible Iran Threat to Universities in Lebanon

People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)
People walk past the main gate to the campus of the American University of Beirut (AUB) in the center of Beirut on January 13, 2022. (AFP)

The US embassy in Beirut said on ‌Friday ‌that Iran ‌and ⁠its aligned armed ⁠groups "may intend to target ⁠universities ‌in Lebanon".

In ‌a security ‌alert, ‌the embassy also ‌urged US citizens to depart ⁠Lebanon "while ⁠commercial flight options remain available".

Lebanon was dragged into the conflict in the Middle East when Iran-backed Hezbollah shot rockets at Israel in retaliation to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei at the beginning of the war.

Over the past 24 hours, Israeli strikes killed 23 people and wounded 98, the Lebanese health ministry said Friday.

The ministry said that the overall death toll includes 125 children and 91 women, since Israel launched intense airstrikes across Lebanon after the Hezbollah fired rockets toward northern Israel in solidarity with Iran on March 2. The strikes have also wounded 4,138 others.

Among those killed are 53 health workers, while Israeli strikes have targeted 83 emergency medical service facilities, the health ministry said.

Arab World

UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Force Says 3 Peacekeepers Wounded in Blast Inside South Lebanon Position

UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)
UNIFIL vehicles drive on a main road in Qlayaa, amid escalating hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, as the US-Israel conflict with Iran continues, in Qlayaa, southern Lebanon, March 27, 2026. (Reuters)

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said a blast hit one of its positions and wounded three peacekeepers on Friday, the third such incident in a week.

"This afternoon, an explosion inside a UN position... injured three peacekeepers, two seriously. They are all currently being evacuated to hospital. We do not yet know the origin of the explosion," UNIFIL spokesperson Kandice Ardiel said in a statement.

"UNIFIL reminds all actors of their obligations to ensure the safety and security of peacekeepers, including by avoiding combat activities nearby that could put them in danger," she added.

The UN force is deployed in south Lebanon near the Israeli border, where Israel and Hezbollah have been at war for a month and where Israeli troops are pressing a ground invasion.

Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on March 2 when the Tehran-backed Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel to avenge the US-Israeli attack that killed Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Israel has responded with massive strikes across Lebanon, as well as the ground operation.

UNIFIL had said that a peacekeeper was killed on Sunday evening when a projectile of unknown origin "exploded in a UNIFIL position near Adchit al-Qusayr".

The following day, UNIFIL said an "explosion of unknown origin" destroyed a peacekeeping vehicle, killing two more Indonesian troops.

It said investigations had been launched into both incidents.

A UN security source told AFP this week that Israeli fire was the source of Sunday's attack, while a mine may have caused the following day's deadly blast.

Israel's military denied responsibility for Monday's incident.

"A comprehensive operational examination indicates that no explosive device was placed in the area by army troops, and that no troops were present in the area at all," the statement said.

According to the UN, 97 force members have been killed in violence since UNIFIL was first established to monitor the withdrawal of Israeli forces after they invaded Lebanon in 1978.

The mandate of the force, which for decades has acted as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon, finishes at the end of this year.

Arab World

RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
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RSF in Sudan Kill at Least 10 People in Hospital Drone Attack, Medical Group Says

Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)
Fighters of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) drive an armored vehicle in Khartoum in 2023. (AFP)

Sudan ’s paramilitary forces killed at least 10 people on Thursday in a drone attack that hit a hospital in the south-central part of the country, said a medical group.

Doctors Without Borders, also known as MSF, said the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, RSF, launched two drone strikes on al-Jabalain Hospital in the White Nile province, hitting an operating theater and a maternity ward.

The strikes, the latest in an intensifying drone warfare between the army and the RSF, killed 10 people, including seven medical staffers, and injured at least 19 people. Those injured were transferred to a hospital in Kosti, which is around 50 miles (80 kilometers) away, said MSF.

Salah Moussa, a senior staffer in the nursing department at al-Jabalain Hospital, was injured in his leg in one of the two strikes. He told The Associated Press by phone on Friday that those killed include the hospital’s general manager, the administrative manager, several policemen and a citizen.

Moussa said he was in his house near the hospital when he heard the sound of explosions at around 11 a.m. on Thursday.

“I rushed to the hospital when I heard the explosion and while we were helping evacuate three injured staff members, another drone strike was launched and I got hit and lost consciousness,” he said. “The hospital lost all its medical and administrative leadership in this attack.”

The strikes are the latest in a series of attacks on the health care system in Sudan that continues to be hit hard during the ongoing war between the army and the RSF that broke out in April 2023. The World Health Organization said in March that over 200 attacks have targeted health care since the war began. Most recently, 70 people were killed, including at least 13 children, in a strike on a hospital in Sudan’s western Darfur region last month.

The nearly three-year conflict in Sudan killed more than 40,000 people, according to UN figures, but aid groups say the true number could be much higher.

“The attack is even more appalling as it occurred during a children’s immunization campaign,” the MSF said of the strike on the al-Jabalain hospital.

Meanwhile, Emergency Lawyers, a local rights group, said Thursday that the attacks also targeted a medical supply depot in Rabak, the capital city of the White Nile province.

The Emergency Lawyers said the “recurring pattern” of drone attacks by the warring parties since March in the provinces of South Kordofan, Blue Nile, East, Central and South Darfur displaced more people.

On Friday, Khalid Aleisir, the minister of culture, information, antiquities and Tourism condemned the attack and called for designating the RSF a terrorist organization and prosecuting its members.

“We also hold regional backers directly responsible for perpetuating this violent campaign through military and logistical support, including advanced weaponry and unmanned aerial systems, which have escalated violence and targeted civilians,” he wrote on X.

Sudan Doctors Network, a local group that monitors war violence, called the attack a “deliberate assault on health facilities and unarmed civilians” that further worsens an already deteriorating health sector in the country.

“MSF is outraged by these repeated attacks on health care, which have escalated dangerously in recent weeks,” said Esperanza Santos, MSF head of emergencies for Sudan in the group’s statement on Thursday. “Health facilities, medical staff, and patients must always be protected. We call on RSF and SAF to immediately stop this spiral of violence against medical facilities.”

A surge in drone strikes in the Sudanese region of Kordofan has taken a growing toll on civilians and hampered aid operations, analysts and humanitarian workers previously said.