Israeli forces kill six in West Bank raids; US sanctions Lebanese network for ‘smuggling for Hezbollah’

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued sanctions on a Lebanese network it accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq on Wednesday on his first foreign trip, signalling the clerical establishment’s intention to strengthen ties with a strategic ally of both Tehran and Washington as regional tensions rise.

At least six killed as Israeli raids in West Bank continue

Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, as troops continued an extended operation against armed groups in the territory, the military said.

An airstrike in the city of Tubas killed five men the military said were armed with explosives that posed a threat to Israeli forces and destroyed weapons production facilities as well as a vehicle rigged with explosives and a remote control.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said rescue crews had recovered five bodies at the site and had transferred them to a hospital.

In a separate incident in the city of Tulkarm, the military said troops backed by police and intelligence services killed an armed militant.

There was no immediate confirmation from any of the armed Palestinian factions that the men killed in the operation were their fighters.

Entrances and exits from Tubas were sealed off and Israeli military vehicles, including road diggers and armoured personnel carriers, could be seen moving through the city, close to the border with Jordan at the northern end of the West Bank.

On Wednesday, as the operations were going on, the military reported a ramming attack east of Ramallah in the West Bank, in which it said the driver of a fuel tanker accelerated towards Israeli soldiers before being shot. An Israeli soldier was killed in the incident, the military said.

Israeli forces have been conducting a series of operations in the northern West Bank for the past two weeks, with extended raids in Tubas, Jenin and Tulkarm. All three cities have a heavy presence of armed factions including Hamas, the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad and Fatah.

Heavy clashes between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters have been reported, while streets and infrastructure in all three cities have suffered extensive damage as Israeli forces have dug up roads and destroyed houses.

Qais Ambar, a resident of the refugee camp in Tulkarm, where two Palestinians were killed during a raid on Tuesday, said people had been forced to flee as their homes were destroyed, leaving many seeking shelter in city mosques.

“The bulldozer swept the house, and the rubble covered my neighbour’s house. They forced us to leave,” he said.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza, with almost daily sweeps by Israeli forces that have involved thousands of arrests and regular gun battles between security forces and Palestinian fighters.

More than 680 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October, including both fighters and unarmed civilians, according to the Palestinian health authorities.

In the same period, about 40 Israeli troops and civilians have been killed in attacks by Palestinians or in clashes with fighters, according to figures from Israel’s domestic security agency.

US sanctions Lebanese network over ‘smuggling for Hezbollah’

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued sanctions on a Lebanese network it accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah.

The sanctions target three people, five companies and two vessels that the US Treasury Department said were overseen by a senior leader of Hezbollah’s finance team and used profits from illicit LPG shipments to Syria to generate revenue for the group.

Acting Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Bradley Smith said Hezbollah “continues to launch rockets into Israel and fuel regional instability, choosing to prioritise funding violence over taking care of the people it claims to care about, including the tens of thousands displaced in southern Lebanon”.

Iran’s president visits Iraq amid Middle East tension

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visited Iraq on Wednesday on his first foreign trip, signalling the clerical establishment’s intention to strengthen ties with a strategic ally of both Tehran and Washington as regional tensions rise.

Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who was elected in July, met Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani at the start of a three-day visit that Tehran and Baghdad said would include the signing of some agreements and discussion of the Gaza war and the situation in the Middle East.

“The expansion of bilateral ties as well as regional and international issues such as the ongoing crimes of the Zionist regime [Israel] against the oppressed people of Palestine and the need to stop the war and genocide in Gaza, will be discussed,” said Pezeshkian’s office.

Iraq hosts several Iran-aligned parties and armed groups, as Tehran has steadily increased its sway in the major oil producer since a US-led invasion toppled its enemy Saddam Hussein in 2003.

A rare partner of both the US and Iran, Iraq hosts 2,500 US troops and has Iran-backed armed factions linked to its security forces. It has suffered escalating tit-for-tat attacks since the Israel-Hamas war began in Gaza in October.

The Iraqi prime minister’s media office said the two countries had signed 14 memoranda of understanding (MoUs) in different fields including trade, sport, agriculture, cultural cooperation, education, media, communications and tourism.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that Tehran and Baghdad had various areas of cooperation “including political, regional ... and security issues”, Iranian state media reported.

Jordan’s Islamists bounce back in election clouded by Gaza war

Jordan’s moderate Islamist opposition made significant gains in Tuesday’s parliamentary election, initial official results showed on Wednesday, boosted by anger over Israel’s war in Gaza.

The Islamist Action Front (IAF) also benefited from a new electoral law that encourages a bigger role for political parties in the 138-seat parliament, though tribal and pro-government factions will continue to dominate the assembly.

The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, won up to a fifth of the seats under the revamped electoral law, which for the first time allocated 41 seats for parties, according to preliminary figures seen by Reuters and confirmed by independent and official sources.

“The Jordanian people have given us their trust by voting for us. This new phase will increase the burden of responsibility for the party towards the nation and our citizens,” Wael al Saqqa, head of the IAF, told Reuters.

The election represents a modest step in a democratisation process launched by King Abdullah as he seeks to insulate Jordan from the conflicts at its borders and speed up the slow pace of political reforms.

Under Jordan’s Constitution, most powers still rest with the king who appoints governments and can dissolve parliament. The assembly can force a Cabinet to resign by a vote of no confidence.

The voting system still favours sparsely populated tribal and provincial regions over the densely populated cities mostly inhabited by Jordanians of Palestinian descent, which are Islamic strongholds and highly politicised.

Turnout among Jordan’s 5.1 million eligible voters in Tuesday’s poll was low at 32.25%, initial official figures showed, up slightly from 29% at the last election in 2020.

Jordanian officials say the fact that elections were being held at all while the war in Gaza and other regional conflicts were raging demonstrated their country’s relative stability.

Biden seeks ‘accountability’ after US citizen killed in West Bank

President Joe Biden said on Wednesday Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like the fatal shooting of a US protester against settlement expansion never happen again, calling her death “totally unacceptable”.

Biden said that while Israel had taken responsibility for her death, the US government expected continued access as the investigation continued over the circumstances of the shooting.

“There must be full accountability. And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again,” said Biden.

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi (26), who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers. Israel has said her death was accidental.

Biden also decried the violence in the West Bank by “extremist Israeli settlers” and “Palestinian terrorists”, one day after top US officials demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank.

“I will continue to support policies that hold all extremists — Israelis and Palestinians alike — accountable for stoking violence and serving as obstacles to peace,” said Biden. DM

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