Palestinian President Abbas says only US can halt Israel’s attack on Rafah | Israel War on Gaza News

More than a million Palestinians are sheltering in the southern Gaza city after being displaced by Israeli attacks.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas says only the United States could stop Israel from attacking the border city of Rafah in Gaza, adding that the assault, which he expects within days, could force much of the Palestinian population to flee the enclave.

“We call on the United States of America to ask Israel to not carry on the Rafah attack. America is the only country able to prevent Israel from committing this crime,” Abbas told a special meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Sunday.

Israel, which has threatened for weeks to launch an all-out assault on the city, saying its goal is to destroy Hamas’s remaining battalions there, stepped up air attacks on Rafah last week.

Western countries, including Israel’s closest ally the US, have pleaded with it to hold back from attacking the southern city, which abuts the Egyptian border and is sheltering more than a million Palestinians who fled Israel’s seven-month-long assault on much of the rest of Gaza.

Abbas said that even a “small strike” on Rafah would force the Palestinian population to flee Gaza.

“The biggest catastrophe in the Palestinian people’s history would then happen,” he said.

Abbas reiterated that he rejects the displacement of Palestinians into Jordan and Egypt and said he is concerned that once Israel completes its operations in Gaza, it will then attempt to force the Palestinian population out of the occupied West Bank and into Jordan.

 

Al Jazeera’s Zein Basravi, reporting from Ramallah, said that Abbas’s remarks were significant as it was the first time a senior leader in the PA made such a statement, but added that the Palestinians expect more from the leader of the PA.

“Abbas is simply echoing the things that the Palestinians we have been speaking to said for the last six months,” he said.

“The reaction to Abbas’s remarks on the Palestinian streets is likely to mirror a broader political response. The people we have been speaking to say that what they see is a speech from their leader, far too late and far too weak.”

Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas led an attack on southern Israel on October 7 in which Israel said 1,139 people were killed and 253 taken captive.

More than 34,400 Palestinians have since been killed, according to the Gaza health ministry, and most of the population is displaced.

Hundreds of thousands of people sheltering in Rafah have nowhere to flee in the face of Israel’s offensive that has levelled large swaths of the urban landscape in the rest of the territory.

United Nations officials and human rights groups warn that an attack on Rafah will be catastrophic.

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Palestinian Prisoner’s Day: How many are still in Israeli detention? | Israel War on Gaza News

Every year, April 17 marks Palestinian Prisoner’s Day, a day dedicated to the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Campaigners use the day to call for the human rights of such prisoners to be upheld and for those who have been detained without charge to be released.

On Monday, Israel released 150 Palestinian prisoners detained during the war in the Gaza Strip. These prisoners, including two Palestine Red Crescent Society workers, said they suffered abuse during their 50 days in Israeli prison, according to a report by the Reuters news agency.

Here’s more about Palestinian Prisoner’s Day and the situation of the prisoners in Israel.

What is Palestinian Prisoner’s Day?

The Palestinian National Council chose April 17 as Palestinian Prisoner’s Day in 1974 because it was the date that Mahmoud Bakr Hijazi was released in the first prisoner exchange between Israel and Palestine in 1971.

Hijazi, who had been serving a 30-year prison sentence on charges of trying to blow up the Nehusha Water Institute in central Israel in 1965, was released by Israel in exchange for a 59-year-old Israeli guard named Shmuel Rozenvasser.

How many Palestinians are in Israeli prisons and how are they treated?

In the occupied Palestinian territories, one in every five Palestinians has been arrested and charged at some point. This rate is twice as high for Palestinian men as it is for women – two in every five men have been arrested and charged.

There are 19 prisons in Israel and one inside the occupied West Bank that hold Palestinian prisoners. Israel stopped allowing independent humanitarian organisations to visit Israeli prisons in October, so it is hard to know the numbers and conditions of people being held there.

As of Tuesday, about 9,500 Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank were in Israeli captivity, according to estimates from Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a rights group based in the West Bank city of Ramallah that supports Palestinian prisoners. The organisation works with human rights groups and families of prisoners to gather information about the situation of the prisoners.

Palestinian prisoners who have been released have reported being beaten and humiliated before and after the start of the war on Gaza on October 7.

Prisoners released into Gaza on Monday have complained of ill-treatment in Israeli prisons, according to the Reuters report. Many of those released said they had been beaten while in custody and had not been provided with medical treatment.

“I went into jail with two legs, and I returned with one leg,” Sufian Abu Salah told Reuters by phone from a hospital in Gaza, adding that he had no medical history of chronic diseases.

“I had inflammations in my leg, and they [the Israelis] refused to take me to hospital. A week later, the inflammations spread and became gangrene. They took me to hospital where I had the surgery,” said Abu Salah, adding that he had also been beaten by his Israeli captors.

Permission for family members of prisoners to visit them has been suspended since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Gaza and since December 2020 in the West Bank, according to HaMoked, a human rights NGO assisting Palestinians subjected to human rights violations under the Israeli occupation. HaMoked added that minors being held in prisons were allowed a 10-minute phone call to their families once every two weeks during 2020.

(Al Jazeera)

How many Palestinian prisoners are being held without charge?

About 3,660 Palestinians being held in Israel are under administrative detention, according to Addameer. An administrative detainee is someone held in prison without charge or trial.

Neither the administrative detainees, who include women and children, nor their lawyers are allowed to see the “secret evidence” that Israeli forces say form the basis for their arrests. These people have been arrested by the military for renewable periods of time, meaning the arrest duration is indefinite and could last for many years. The administrative detainees include 41 children and 12 women, according to Addameer.

(Al Jazeera)

Why are Palestinian children held in Israeli prisons?

According to Addameer, 80 women and 200 children are currently being held in Israeli prisons.

In 2016, Israel introduced a new law allowing children between the ages of 12 and 14 to be held criminally responsible, meaning they can be tried in court as adults and be given prison sentences. Previously, only those 14 or older could be sentenced to prison. Prison sentences cannot begin until the child reaches the age of 14, however [PDF].

This new law, which was passed on August 2, 2016, by the Israeli Knesset, enables Israeli authorities “to imprison a minor convicted of serious crimes such as murder, attempted murder or manslaughter even if he or she is under the age of 14”, according to a Knesset statement at the time the law was introduced.

This change was made after Ahmed Manasra was arrested in 2015 in occupied East Jerusalem at the age of 13. He was charged with attempted murder and sentenced to 12 years in prison after the new law had come into effect and, crucially, after his 14th birthday. Later, his sentence was commuted to nine years on appeal.

What sort of trials do Palestinians receive?

Controversially, Palestinian prisoners are tried and sentenced in military courts rather than civil courts.

International law permits Israel to use military courts in the territory that it occupies.

A dual legal system exists in Palestine, under which Israeli settlers living in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are subject to Israeli civil law while Palestinians are subject to Israeli military law in military courts run by Israeli soldiers and officers.

How long have some Palestinians been in Israeli captivity?

Some Palestinian prisoners have been held in Israeli prisons for more than three decades.

These are people who were arrested before the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993 between then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzakh Rabin, who was assassinated by an ultra-nationalist Israeli in 1995 who opposed the negotiations, and Yasser Arafat, the chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. These pre-Oslo prisoners are called “deans of prisoners” by Palestinians, according to the website of Samidoun, an international network of organisers and activists advocating for Palestinian prisoners.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the current number of pre-Oslo prisoners in Israeli prisons.

On April 7, the prominent Palestinian prisoner, activist and novelist Walid Daqqa died at Israel’s Shamir Medical Center. Daqqa had been arrested in 1968 for killing an Israeli soldier and remained in prison for 38 years before his death. He had been diagnosed with cancer in 2021. Despite pressure from rights groups to release Daqqa on medical grounds, Israel refused to free him.

Prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti – who was the co-founder of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, also known as Fatah, the party that governs the West Bank – has been in prison for 22 years. In February, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, announced that Barghouti had been placed in solitary confinement in February.



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Gaza war reminds Vietnam of liberation struggle once shared with Palestine | Israel War on Gaza News

Hanoi, Vietnam – At a private venue tucked away in a narrow alley in Hanoi’s city centre, a group of more than 20 people listened attentively to Saleem Hammad, a charismatic, 30-year-old Palestinian man, as he spoke in fluent Vietnamese.

Hammad, who runs a business in Vietnam, shared an incident from his childhood in Jenin in the occupied West Bank.

Those present listened as he recounted a vivid memory of being awoken one night as Israeli soldiers surrounded and raided his family home.

Earlier, he had told those attending the discussion that Vietnam’s history of fighting for liberation against the United States had inspired Palestinians in their struggle against Israel’s occupation of their lands.

“Vietnamese people, with their painful and glorious history, have always been the source of inspiration for the Palestinians in our struggle for justice,” Hammad told his audience.

“We always look up to you as the role model.”

Horrified by Israel’s war on Gaza and the spiralling death toll, primarily young Vietnamese people have begun to raise their voices in support of Palestinians. In the process, they are discovering historical ties between Vietnam and Palestine and their shared fights for national liberation.

But the decades-old relationship between the two nations has been overshadowed by more recent promotion of Israel’s business culture to a younger generation of Vietnamese.

Focused on achieving success in Vietnam’s fast-growing free market economy, many have been inspired by Israel’s startup business culture while knowing little about the darker side of Israel’s success in terms of its long occupation of Palestinian land.

Organised late last year by pro-Palestinian activists Trinh* and Vuong*, the gathering where Hammad spoke was inspired by the student activism the pair encountered while studying in the US.

Trinh and Vuong are part of a burgeoning grassroots movement among Vietnamese youth who have been drawn to the Palestinian cause since the war on Gaza started in October.

But Vietnam’s strict policies against public assemblies and political activism means pro-Palestinian campaigners have to come up with low-key and creative ways of organising events without attracting the unwanted attention of Vietnamese authorities.

In Ho Chi Minh City, Trinh and some friends have organised discussions on Palestine and drawing classes with a Palestinian theme. A designer by training, Trinh has also worked with fellow creatives to design pro-Palestine merchandise, political art and fanzines.

Vietnamese youth create art in support of Palestine [Courtesy of Tu Ly]

In November, a screening of documentaries and films on Palestine, the Nakba and the history of Israel’s occupation of Palestine took place under the title Films for Liberation: Palestine Forever with the aim, according to the organisers, of undoing “the demonising descriptions of the Palestinians” by “Western and imperialist” actors.

On social media, a host of Vietnamese-language fan pages has sprung up featuring translated Palestinian poems, pro-Palestine artwork and analyses on the history of the conflict while the embassy of Palestine in Vietnam invited former veterans of the war against the US, academics, activists and members of the public to a commemoration for those killed in Gaza.

On November 29, which is the United Nations-designated International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, Vietnam’s government also published a message from then-President Vo Van Thuong in which he spoke of the long history of fraternity between Vietnam and Palestine and “Vietnam’s strong support and solidarity with the Palestinians in their struggle for justice”.

But the relationship between Vietnam and Palestine is not as it once was.

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Is the Palestinian Authority still relevant? | Palestinian Authority

Under US pressure to reform the PA, Mahmoud Abbas has appointed a new prime minister.

Amid mounting pressure from the United States, the Palestinian Authority is shaking up its leadership.

President Mahmoud Abbas has named his financial adviser as the new prime minister.

Sixty-nine-year-old Mohammed Mustafa has ample experience in economics, but little in politics.

The move has surprised many – violence is escalating in the occupied West Bank and Israel’s war on Gaza shows no sign of ending.

So, how could this appointment shape the future of the PA?

And does it have enough backing from Palestinians to move forward?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Tahani Mustafa – Senior Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group

Mansour Shouman – Canadian Palestinian citizen journalist who reported from Gaza between October 2023 and February 2024

Mustafa Barghouti – Secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative

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Palestinian President Abbas appoints Mohammed Mustafa as prime minister | Israel War on Gaza News

The move comes as the Palestinian Authority faces pressure to reform from the US amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed his longtime economic adviser Mohammed Mustafa to be the next prime minister in the face of US pressure to reform the Palestinian Authority as part of Washington’s post-war vision for Gaza.

Mustafa, a US-educated economist and political independent, now faces the task of forming a new government for the PA, which has limited powers in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

In a statement announcing the appointment on Thursday, Abbas asked Mustafa to put together plans to re-unify administration in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, lead reforms in the government, security services and economy and fight corruption.

Mustafa replaces former Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh who, along with his government, resigned in February citing the need for change amid Israel’s war on Gaza and escalating violence in the occupied West Bank.

The internationally recognised PA, which is dominated by the Fatah party, exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007.

Aims to reunify governance of Palestinian lands after face major obstacles, including strong opposition from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and a devastating war that is still grinding on with no end in sight.

Fatah and Hamas are expected to meet in Moscow this week for talks.

Mustafa, 69, has held senior positions at the World Bank and previously served as deputy prime minister and economy minister.

In 2015, Abbas appointed Mustafa as the chairman of the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), which has nearly $1bn in assets and funds projects across the occupied Palestinian territory.

He served as a deputy prime minister responsible for economic affairs from 2013 to 2014, when he led a committee tasked with rebuilding Gaza after the seven-week war in which more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed.

Speaking at Davos in January, Mustafa said the “catastrophe and humanitarian impact” of Israel’s continuing war on Gaza was much greater than a decade ago.

At least 31,341 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 7, most of its 2.3 million population have been displaced and are in desperate need of aid, and swaths of the enclave now lie in rubble.

Biden administration officials have urged Abbas to bring new blood, including technocrats and economic specialists, into a revamped PA to help govern post-war Gaza.

But it is unclear whether the appointment of a new cabinet led by a close Abbas ally would be sufficient to meet US demands for reform, as the 88-year-old president would remain in overall control.

Israel, meanwhile, has said it will never cooperate with any Palestinian government that refuses to reject Hamas and its October 7 attack on southern Israel.

Mustafa, in his Davos remarks, described the October 7 attack as “unfortunate for everybody”.

“But it’s also a symptom of a bigger problem … that the Palestinian people have been suffering for 75 years non-stop,” he said.

“Until today, we still believe that statehood for Palestinians is the way forward, so we hope that this time around we will be able to achieve that, so that all people in the region can live in security and peace.”

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US criticised at UN for vetoing Gaza ceasefire resolutions | Israel War on Gaza

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‘There’s a reason why ethnic cleansing was possible in Palestine.’
Palestine’s UN envoy slammed the US during a UN session examining the potential misuse of veto power by the United States in blocking repeated ceasefire resolutions for Gaza.

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ICJ to hold hearings on Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories | Israel War on Gaza News

Hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of Palestine are separate from the genocide case brought by South Africa.

The United Nations’s highest court is set to open historic hearings into the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The week-long proceedings, which begin at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Monday, come as Israel continues its devastating war on Gaza.

The assault has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians since October 7.

The case is separate from the genocide complaint South Africa filed at the ICJ against Israel for its alleged violations in the ongoing war.

It focuses instead on Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem since 1967.

The Palestinians seek all three areas for an independent state.

Palestinian representatives, who speak first on Monday, will argue that the Israeli occupation is illegal because it has violated three key tenets of international law, the Palestinian legal team told reporters on Wednesday.

They say Israel has violated the prohibition on territorial conquest by annexing large swathes of occupied land, violated Palestinians’ right to self-determination and imposed a system of racial discrimination and apartheid.

“We want to hear new words from the court,” said Omar Awadallah, the head of the UN organizations department in the Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

“They’ve had to consider the word genocide in the South Africa case,” he said, referring to the separate case before the court. “Now we want them to consider apartheid.”

Awadallah said that an advisory opinion from the court “will give us many tools, using peaceful international law methods and tools, to confront the illegalities of the occupation”.

The court will likely take months to make a ruling.

After the Palestinians present their arguments, an unprecedented 51 countries and three organisations – the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the African Union – will address the judges in the wood-panelled Great Hall of Justice.

Israel will not present an oral argument, although it has sent written observations.

The case arrived at the court after the UN General Assembly (UNGA) voted by a wide margin in December 2022 to ask the 15-judge panel for a non-binding advisory opinion on the Israeli occupation.

The request was promoted by Palestinians and opposed vehemently by Israel, which said any potential decision from the court would be “completely illegitimate”.

Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in 1967 during a war with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but still controls the enclave’s borders.

In the occupied West Bank, it has built 146 settlements, according to the watchdog group Peace Now, which are home to more than 500,000 Jewish settlers. The West Bank settler population has grown by more than 15 percent in the last five years, according to a pro-settler group.

Israel also has annexed East Jerusalem and considers the entire city to be its capital. An additional 200,000 Israelis live in settlements built in East Jerusalem, which Israel considers to be neighbourhoods of its capital. Palestinian residents of the city face systematic discrimination, making it difficult for them to build new homes or expand existing ones.

The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements to be illegal. Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites, is not internationally recognised.

The case marks the second time the UNGA has asked the ICJ, also known as the World Court, for an advisory opinion related to the occupied Palestinian territory.

In July 2004, the court found that Israel’s separation wall in the West Bank violated international law and should be dismantled, though it still stands to this day.

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Which countries back South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at ICJ? | Israel War on Gaza News

Here are countries which welcomed the ICJ case that says Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) based in The Hague will hold its first hearing in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel on Thursday, with several countries welcoming the move amid a global chorus for a ceasefire in Gaza.

South Africa filed the lawsuit end of December, accusing Israel of genocide in its war on Gaza and seeking a halt to the brutal military assault that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, nearly 10,000 of them children.

The 84-page filing by South Africa says Israel violated the 1948 Genocide Convention, drawn up in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust.

Both Israel and South Africa are signatories to the United Nations Genocide Convention, which gives the ICJ – the highest UN legal body – jurisdiction to rule on disputes over the treaty.

All states that signed the convention are obliged to not commit genocide and also to prevent and punish it. The treaty defines genocide as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”.

Here’s what we know about the countries backing South Africa in its case against Israel, and the countries that oppose the case at the world court.

Which countries have welcomed South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel?

  • The Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC): The 57-member bloc, which includes Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Morocco, voiced their support for the case on December 30.
  • Malaysia: In a statement released on January 2, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs welcomed the South African application. It reiterated a call for an independent Palestinian state “based on the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital”.
  • Turkey: Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Oncu Keceli posted on X on January 3 welcoming South Africa’s move.
  • Jordan: Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said on January 4 that Amman would back South Africa.
  • Bolivia: On Sunday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bolivia dubbed South Africa’s move as historic, becoming the first Latin American country to back the ICJ case against Israel.
  • Besides countries, many advocacy groups and civil society groups worldwide have also joined South Africa’s call. These include Terreiro Pindorama in Brazil, Asociacion Nacional de Amistad Italia-Cuba in Italy, and Collectif Judeo Arabe et Citoyen pour la Palestine in France, reported independent outlet Common Dreams.

Which countries filed the ICC request earlier?

Bolivia also pointed out it had earlier filed a request to International Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Karim Khan alongside South Africa, Bangladesh, Comoros, and Djibouti to investigate the situation in Palestine. Khan said he received the request on November 30.

The ICC and the ICJ are sometimes conflated with one another. Both the courts are located in The Hague, Netherlands. While the purpose of the ICJ is to resolve conflicts between states, the ICC prosecutes individuals for committing crimes, according to the University of Melbourne’s Pursuit platform. While states cannot be sued at the ICC, the prosecutor can open an investigation where crimes, including genocide, were likely committed.

Who is not backing South Africa’s ICJ case?

The United States has voiced its opposition to the genocide case. National security spokesperson John Kirby called South Africa’s submission “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis” during a White House press briefing on January 3.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday that “there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous” than the lawsuit. Herzog also thanked Blinken for Washington’s support of Israel.

Israel’s Western allies, including the European Union, have mostly maintained silence on the ICJ case.

The United Kingdom, which has refused to support the case, has been accused of double standards after it submitted detailed legal documents to the ICJ about a month ago to support claims that Myanmar committed genocide against the Rohingya community.



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Who were the Hamas officials killed in Beirut? | Israel War on Gaza News

Along with leader Saleh al-Arouri, other significant members of Hamas died in Tuesday’s blast.

Other significant Hamas officials died in Tuesday’s drone strike that killed senior leader Saleh al-Arouri, harming the armed group’s military capabilities in Lebanon during Israel’s war on Gaza.

According to Lebanese state media, the strike on a Hamas office in the Hezbollah stronghold of Dahiyeb, a southern suburb of Beirut, killed seven people. Hamas described the killing of al-Arouri on its official TV channel as “a “cowardly assassination” by Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s adviser Mark Regev told the United States-based TV news channel MSNBC that Israel had not taken responsibility for the attack and added: “Whoever did it, it must be clear that this was not an attack on the Lebanese state.”

Here is what we know about al-Arouri and the six other Hamas officials killed in the drone attack in the Lebanese capital:

Saleh al-Arouri

Al-Arouri, 57, was the deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau. He was also one of the founding members of Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades.

After spending 15 years in an Israeli prison, al-Arouri was released in 2007 and had been living in exile in Lebanon. He was a Hamas spokesperson and was one of the negotiators of a deal that saw 1,027 Palestinian and foreign prisoners exchanged for a single Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, in 2011.

At the start of December, al-Arouri was the Hamas official who told Al Jazeera that a prisoner exchange under which more captives would be released from Gaza would not take place without a ceasefire.

On October 31, Israeli forces destroyed al-Arouri’s house in Aroura near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israel blamed him for attacks on Israelis in the area. He had received multiple death threats from Israel before the war broke out on October 7.

The United States designated al-Arouri a “global terrorist” in 2015 and issued a $5m reward for information leading to his identification or location.

Saleh al-Arouri on August 2, 2018 [File: Mohammad Austaz/Hamas Media Office/AP]

Azzam al-Aqra

Al-Aqra, 54, was a leading commander of the Qassam Brigades’ military operations outside Gaza. As a young man, he was arrested twice for short periods. In 1992, the year that al-Arouri was imprisoned in Israel, he was exiled to Marj al-Zuhur in Lebanon along with 415 other members of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups.

In 2022, Israeli media alleged he had plotted to penetrate Israeli communications networks.

He settled in Lebanon, married there and was a key member of the group there. He was also known as Abu Abdullah.

Samir Fendi

Samir Fendi was a senior leader of the Qassam Brigades and its top commander in southern Lebanon. He was also known as Abu Amer.

In July, an Israeli television channel reported that Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, had included him and al-Arouri on a list of targets for assassination.

Also killed

The drone strike also killed four other Hamas members: Mahmoud Zaki Shaheen, Mohammed al-Rayes, Mohammed Bashasha and Ahmed Hamoud.

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Ex-Palestinian PM Fayyad: ‘PLO should expand to include Hamas’ | Israel-Palestine conflict

Former Palestinian Authority PM Salam Fayyad says Palestinians should be tending to their own interests, not Israel’s.

“No national liberation movement in history is based on what its enemy wants,” says the former prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad.

For the Palestinian Authority to have any legitimacy in the eyes of the Palestinian people, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) would have to expand its membership to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Fayyad tells host Steve Clemons.

Without achieving a “national consensus”, the Palestinian Authority is in no position to rule the Gaza Strip when Israel’s war on Gaza ends, Fayyad says. Otherwise, the United States’ hopes for a “revitalised” Palestinian leadership are pointless.

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