US wants Israel to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of settlers

Israeli army kills three Palestinians during raid on West Bank refugee camp

The Israeli army killed three Palestinians during a raid on a refugee camp near the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday night. This was reported by the Hamas-led Palestinian Ministry of Health, reports Reuteurs news agency.

The raid on the camp has been going on since Tuesday morning. Since then, eleven Palestinians have been killed and ten injured. The refugee camp near Jenin has approximately 14,000 inhabitants. The Israeli army sees the camp as a source of terrorism. An Israeli army spokesman said, according to Reuters, that the operation is intended to “dismantle explosives along roads.”

At least 24 killed in overnight Israeli attacks on Rafah

At least 24 people were killed in the center of the southern Gazan city of Rafah on Wednesday night after two houses collapsed due to Israeli airstrikes. International news agencies wrote this on Thursday based on information from Hamas. According to it Palestinian news agency Wafa 27 people died in the bombings.

Despite the attacks, more and more people are moving to Rafah, which is located in the southernmost tip of the Gaza Strip, near the border with Egypt. A few weeks ago, the Israeli army called on Gazans to move south, and last week the army also ordered residents of the southern city of Khan Younis to move even further south.

According to the United Nations, more than a million people have now sought refuge in Rafah, more than half of Gaza’s population. The organization previously warned that Rafah does not have enough facilities to accommodate the flow of refugees. People are sleeping in tents in makeshift refugee camps throughout the city. “Large crowds wait for hours around aid distribution centers, in desperate need of food, water, shelter, health care and protection,” says the UN.

US wants Israel to prevent weapons from getting into the hands of settlers

The United States does not want the weapons it supplies to Israel to end up in the hands of settlers in the West Bank. They demand there tougher commitments about Israel, writes The Washington Post. According to the newspaper, Israel has requested 20,000 assault rifles.

Israeli officials have assured that the weapons will go to police, but the US is concerned that ultra-nationalist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is giving them to settlers anyway. Since Hamas’s attacks on Israel on October 7, settlers in the West Bank have carried out 320 attacks on Palestinians, killing hundreds of Palestinians, according to the United Nations.

These acts of violence are preventing the sale of the weapons for the time being. The United States is also according to The Washington Post not to mention Israel’s actions in the south of the Gaza Strip.

Welcome to this blog

In this blog, NRC follows the war between Israel and Hamas, which has now lasted more than two months, and developments related to it. You can read our previous blog here.