THOUSANDS of Palestinians joined the funeral procession of a Palestinian police lieutenant on Friday who was killed a day earlier from Israeli military gunfire.
Thousands of Palestinians flocked to Azzun town, east of Qalqilia, to attend the funeral procession of Tareq Ahmad Badwan, 25, who succumbed to his critical injuries he sustained after being shot by Israeli military gunfire in an unprovoked attack during a raid in Jenin city.
Badwan was hit in his upper body while inside a police station in the city. The bullet struck his spine before he was rushed into surgery at a nearby hospital in Jenin, where he was pronounced dead afterwards.
Last Thursday morning, Israeli forces stormed Jenin city to demolish for the second time a house belonging to the family of a Palestinian prisoner over his alleged role in a shooting attack that killed a settler two years ago.
The raid resulted in the killing of Monzer Abu Tabeek, 19, and injuring dozens others, including Badwan, who succumbed to his wounds.
Badwan’s body was wrapped in a Palestinian flag as the funeral procession started from the hospital, made a stop at his family house before heading to Azzun Mosque.
Among the mourners were Justice Minister Mohammad Shalaldeh and Communications and Information Technology Minister Ishaq Sider.
- Secretary-General of the PLO Executive Committee Saeb Erekat last Friday blamed the recently-announced US Middle East plan as a reason for the latest upsurge in violence.
Erekat rejected US allegations of incitement and linked the latest escalation of violence to US President Donald Trump’s plan, dubbed the ‘Deal of the Century’, which in fact cements Israel’s longstanding policy of permanent occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.
‘Main source of violence is the Israeli occupation & its colonial-settlement plan. Mr. Kushner has enabled Israel to move ahead with further annexation/colonisation. But he blames President Abbas because according to those like him, our mere existence/rights & International Law are the problem,’ he tweeted.
He was responding to remarks delivered the day before by Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who blamed President Mahmoud Abbas for escalating violence in the occupied West Bank, which erupted after Trump’s ‘peace plan’ was unveiled on January 28th.
In a behind closed doors meeting with the UN Security Council in New York yesterday, Kushner said Abbas ‘does have a responsibility’ because leaders who are ready to form a state ‘don’t call for days of rage and encourage their people to pursue violence if they’re not getting what they want’.
The US formula would legitimise all illegal Israeli colonial settlements on Palestinian territory; deny the legitimate claim of Palestinians for a national capital in East Jerusalem; leave tens of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel outside Israel; annex large parts of Palestine including giving Israel sovereignty over one-third of Palestinian territory in the Jordan Valley; deprive Palestinians of refugee status; and eliminate UNRWA, the UN agency which is vital to the Palestinian economy.
- Israeli police last Friday morning turned back busloads of worshippers en route from northern Israel to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
Police deployed at the entrances of Jerusalem turned back buses of Palestinian Muslim worshippers from Galilee and the Triangle region in the north of present-day Israel making their way to Al-Aqsa for Friday morning prayers.
Police also barged their way into the flashpoint mosque compound, where they shoved and assaulted worshippers following the Fajr prayer.
Worshippers slammed the police practice as an infringement upon their freedom of worship and as a form of collective punishment against them.
This came as Israeli occupation authorities boosted military reinforcements in Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
This also came a day after three Palestinians were gunned down by Israeli military fire in separate areas of the West Bank and 12 soldiers were injured when a Palestinian motorist drove into them in West Jerusalem.
The latest spike in violence was triggered by the recent announcement of the US-touted Middle East peace plan, dubbed the ‘Deal of the Century’, which in fact cements Israel’s longstanding policy of permanent occupation, colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people.
Messianic Jewish settlers are hoping to establish an increased presence on the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, among the most important Muslim shrines in the world and potent symbols of Palestinian nationalism, and calling for building a third temple on what they term the ‘Temple Mount’.
Their far-right beliefs were once considered a small fringe movement, but in recent years, they have found favour in the administration of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, receiving the endorsement of many lawmakers.
Settlers incursions into the mosque compound coupled with the take-over of church property in Jerusalem are perceived as part of the plan to transform a multi-religious and multi-cultural city into a ‘reunified’ Jewish city under the exclusive control and sovereignty of Israel.
- Damascus has strongly condemned the near-simultaneous deployment of Turkish military forces to Syria’s embattled northwestern province of Idlib and the recent Israeli air aggression against the Arab country, saying the developments prove that Ankara works hand in glove with the Tel Aviv regime in supporting terrorism.
‘Turkish forces, in a close collaboration and exposed concurrence, and under the cover of the Israeli aggression, infringed upon Syrian borders and were deployed in areas stretching between the towns of Binnish, Ma’arrat Misrin and Taftanaz. Such a step affirms the common interests of Turkish and Israeli regimes regarding the protection of terrorists, particularly Jabhat Fatah al-Sham (formerly known as Nusra Front), and to impede the advancement of the Syrian army in Idlib and Aleppo, and to prevent the complete defeat of their proxies in Syria,’ an unnamed source at the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said in a statement carried by Syria’s official news agency SANA last Thursday.
Syria’s army says a Turkish military convoy has passed into Syria’s Idlib to protect foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists simultaneously with Israeli air raids.
He added that both the Turkish military deployment and the Israeli airstrikes in the early hours of Thursday were blatant violation of Syrian sovereignty and international law, and clearly showed the entire world the parties that support, sponsor and protect terrorism in Syria.
Such incidents took the mask off the face of Turkish leader (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) who used to express hostility towards Israel.
‘The Syrian Arab Republic reiterates that acts of aggression, either by the Turkish regime or Israel or both of them, will not prevent the Syrian army from continuing its campaign against terrorism until the entire Syrian territories are liberated and completely purged from the presence of terror groups,’ the diplomat highlighted.
SANA, citing a statement released by the Syrian General Command of the Army and Armed Forces, reported that a Turkish military convoy, including a number of armoured vehicles, had passed from Oglinar area into Syria and was deployed along the line linking the towns of Binnish, Ma’arrat Misrin and Taftanaz early last Thursday.
Syrian air defence forces have intercepted several missiles launched from ‘the Palestinian occupied territories’, according to Syrian state media.
The development took place shortly after Syrian air defence forces intercepted several missiles launched from the occupied Golan Heights and southern Lebanon targeting al-Kiswa area, Marj al-Sultan, Baghdad Bridge and South of Izra’ around the capital, Damascus.
Meanwhile, Syrian government forces have entered the city of Saraqib in Idlib province.
The so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a 0report corroborated by witnesses that Syrian troops marched through the city, situated 15 kilometres (9.3 miles) east of Idlib city last Thursday following battles with foreign-sponsored Takfiri militants.
According to SANA, Syrian army units have also liberated the town of Afes, north of Saraqib in eastern Idlib countryside, and the villages of al-Zahabiya, Jadidate Talafeh, Talafeh and Gilas to the west of Abu al-Duhour after major advances against terrorists, establishing control over the highway that connects Aleppo to Saraqib.
The Syrian forces also killed and injured large number of terrorists during the operation, while a number of terrorists fled away.
