Israel and Palestinian Territories

Israeli Forces Raid West Bank Camp 

Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including a fighter of the Islamist Hamas group, during a raid on a refugee camp in the West Bank on Sunday, emergency workers and Hamas said, while in Gaza, Israeli strikes hit security posts for a second day. In the latest round of violence, Israeli forces raided the Nur Shams camp near the West Bank city of Tulkarm early Sunday morning, setting off an hours-long gun battle with Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

Hamas, which has been extending its reach away from its base in Gaza and into the West Bank, said one of the men who were killed, 21-year-old Osaid Abu Ali, was a member of its armed wing. The other man's family, 32-year-old Abdel-Rahman Abu Daghash, said he had stepped onto the roof of his house to observe what was going on when a sniper killed him. “He went up to the rooftop to film the ambulances. He barely had the chance to look and the sniper targeted him,” said his brother Mo'men Abu Daghash. “He has nothing to do with it and he has kids and his wife is about to give birth.”  

Lebanon and Hezbollah 

Nasrallah: Syrian Refugees “Existential Threat” to Lebanon 

Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah on Monday called for the establishment of a national commission encompassing all parliamentary groups to develop a plan to solve the Syrian migrant crisis with which Lebanon has been dealing since the outbreak of the civil war in the neighboring country. Nasrallah noted that there was rare “unanimity” among all Lebanese on the matter of solving the refugee crisis, because it “constitutes an existential threat for Lebanon,” he claimed. “I call for the establishment of a commission bringing together all parliamentary groups to establish a plan, a strategy, or a national program on which the Lebanese agree and to put pressure on the outgoing government, the army, and the Security Forces internal because that would allow us to achieve a result,” Nasrallah suggested.

Nasrallah also said Lebanon should stop preventing Syrians from leaving Lebanon to the EU, as Lebanon experiences a surge in migration from Syria. Nasrallah said that Lebanon should stop preventing Syrian refugees from leaving the country by sea and instead equip them with proper boats and help facilitate their passage to Europe. "The European Countries will come running to Beirut, to the Serail, and ask the government: 'What do you want to stop this migration of refugees towards Europe?'" Nasrallah said.  

Nasrallah claimed that the United States is responsible for displacing Syrian refugees, blaming U.S. sanctions for undermining the Syrian economy. "If the Caesar [Sanctions] Act is lifted and the doors are opened to investments, hundreds of thousands of Syrians will return to their country," Nasrallah said. 

Syria 

Israel Conducts Airstrikes in Syria 

Syrian state media said Tuesday that the Israeli military carried out airstrikes in a strategic eastern province, wounding two soldiers and causing material damage. There was no comment from Israel on the reported strikes. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, quoted an unnamed military official saying the airstrikes targeted military positions in Deir el-Zour late Monday.

###