A Palestinian man was arrested while attempting to enter a West Bank military court with a pipe bomb, the police announced Wednesday.

According to a statement, Border Police officers arrested the man at the Samaria Military Court in the village of Salem. A bomb squad neutralized the explosive device and the unnamed suspect was detained and interrogated, police said.

The Samaria Military Court has been the site of repeated pipe bombing attempts over the years. Most recently, in late May, a Palestinian man was caught trying to smuggle two pipe bombs into the court by hiding them under his shirt.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up </s> NABLUS, West Bank, May 18 (Reuters) - A Palestinian man was killed in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when an Israeli settler opened fire as protesters crowded around his car and pelted it with rocks, according to multiple accounts.

A Reuters photographer and other witnesses said hundreds of Palestinians had gathered near the city of Nablus to show support for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails. During their demonstration, they blocked a main road used by both Palestinians and Israeli settlers.

The Israeli military said the Palestinians began throwing rocks at passing vehicles, including one belonging to a settler.

Video footage showed a grey four-door car being forced to a halt in the middle of the road, next to an ambulance, and being bombarded with rocks. The driver can be seen inside, drawing a handgun and firing at least three shots towards the sides of the road, although the target is not clear.

Yossi Dagan, head of the settlers' Samaria regional council, said he had spoken with the settler, who told him he had been in fear of his life when he fired. "He pulled his gun out to defend himself, in order to stop them from lynching him. He fired."

Majdi Mohammed, a Palestinian photographer for the Associated Press who was wounded by the gunshots, described what he saw.

"When the army arrived, he (the settler) started shooting. I had my back turned to him. I put my hand on my head. The one next to me was hit by a bullet in his head, and people said he was killed," he told reporters.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said soldiers had arrived to disperse the demonstration. She said the settler in the car had acknowledged firing his gun, and confirmed that one man had been killed and one injured.

The army said it was investigating the incident. The Palestinian Health Ministry said the dead man was a 23-year-old Palestinian.

There have been several clashes in recent days between settlers and Palestinians.

Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East, said that "this deplorable incident must be promptly and thoroughly investigated and all suspected of being involved must be prosecuted".

At least 245 Palestinians and one Jordanian citizen have been killed since a wave of sporadic violence began in 2015 in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Israel says at least 165 of those killed were carrying out stabbings, shootings or car ramming attacks. Others died during clashes and protests.

Thirty-seven Israelis, two American tourists and a British student have been killed in the violence, which has slowed in recent months but not stopped.

Israel says the Palestinian leadership is inciting the violence. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank, denies incitement and says that, in many cases, Israel has used excessive force in thwarting attackers armed with rudimentary weapons. (Reporting by Ali Sawafta; Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Kevin Liffey) </s> The assailant wounded two ultra-Orthodox Jewish men in the street before fleeing into a nearby house where he was caught by border police officers who had given chase. He stabbed one of them before being shot, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.

One of the two civilians was stabbed in the upper body and suffered injuries described as moderate. The other man and the border policeman were lightly wounded, Rosenfeld added.

Palestinian web sites identified the assailant as 17-year-old Ahmed Ghazzal, from the city of Nablus in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The incident took place close to the spot where, three days earlier, border police shot and killed a woman who tried to stab officers at Damascus Gate, a heavily guarded entrance to Jerusalem's Old City.

At least 242 Palestinians have been killed in Israel and the Palestinian Territories in a period of sporadic violence that began in October 2015 but has tapered off in recent months.

Israel says at least 162 were Palestinians who launched stabbing, shooting or ramming attacks using vehicles on Israelis before being killed by Israeli security forces. Others died during clashes and protests.

Two American tourists and 37 Israelis have been killed in such incidents since the violence began.

Israel has accused the Palestinian leadership of inciting the violence. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, denies incitement and charges that in many cases, Israel has used excessive force in thwarting attackers armed with rudimentary weapons. </s> The Palestinian Authority banned members of the Palestinian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank.



The ban came after the grassroots group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society (Arabic for “the bow”), which engages and supports Palestinians who identify as LGBTQ, was planning to hold a gathering for its members in Nablus at the end of the month. The group operates both in the West Bank and among Arab-Israelis.

Earlier this month, Al-Qaws held an event in Nablus about sexual and gender diversity in Palestinian society. The PA police, however, learned about the event only days after it was held.Al-Qaws is a civil society organization established in 2001 with the goal of “fighting for vibrant Palestinian cultural and social change, building LGBTQ communities and promoting new ideas about the role of gender and sexual diversity in political activism, civil society institutions, media, and everyday life.”The group has offices only in east Jerusalem and Haifa.Explaining the decision to ban the LGBTQ group from operating in PA-controlled areas, Luay Zreikat, spokesperson for the PA Police, said that such activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.”Zreikat said that the group’s activities were completely “unrelated to religions and Palestinian traditions and customs, especially in the city of Nablus.”He accused unnamed “dubious parties” of working to “create discord and harm civic peace in Palestinian society.”The PA police will chase those behind the LGBTQ group and see to it that they are brought to trial once they are arrested, Zreikat warned. He further appealed to Palestinians to report to the police about any person connected to the group.In response, Al-Qaws condemned the police threat as “incitement,” and vowed to continue its work despite the serious challenges.“The Palestinian police announcement about our activities is very unfortunate,” the group said. “It’s very strange that they are accusing us of being a suspicious entity working to take apart Palestinian society. Al-Qaws is a Palestinian organization that has been operating since 2001, and is carrying out educational and professional programs on sexual and gender diversity. We totally reject the attempt to create an atmosphere of prosecution and intimidation, as well threats of arrest.”A member of Al-Qaws said that since the police announcement, he and his friends have received hundreds of threats and hate messages from Palestinians, especially through Facebook. “The attack on us is unprecedented,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “They are calling us traitors and corrupt people and many are calling for our execution. We are afraid for our lives.”

var cont = `Join Jerusalem Post Premium Plus now for just $5 and upgrade your experience with an ads-free website and exclusive content. Click here>>



`; document.getElementById("linkPremium").innerHTML = cont; (function (v, i){ }); </s> Four Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in separate operations over the past 24 hours in the occupied West Bank, with the Israeli army announcing the city of Ramallah a closed military zone.

The closure was announced following a shooting attack near the illegal settlement of Ofra east of Ramallah. Two Israeli soldiers were killed by an unknown Palestinian. According to local news agencies, the Palestinian fled the scene in his car.

In a statement, the Israeli army said it is carrying out searches near the areas of the roads entering and exiting Ramallah.

The Hamas movement, which governs the besieged Gaza Strip, saluted the shooting and in a statement said it proved "resistance" was still alive in the West Bank.

"The flame of resistance in the West Bank will remain alive until the Israeli occupation is defeated from the entirety of our land, and we regain our full rights," Hamas said.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to legalise thousands of Jewish settlement homes in the occupied West Bank that were built without Israeli permits.

He also vowed to expedite the demolition of the Palestinian attackers' homes within 48 hours, increase detentions of Hamas members already in Israeli prisons and beef up Israeli forces in the region.

"Our guiding principle is that whoever attacks us and whoever tries to attack us - will pay with his life," he said. "Our enemies know this and we will find them."

Overnight killings

The first of the killings came overnight on Wednesday when Israeli forces killed three Palestinians in separate operations over the span of six hours. They were suspects in alleged attacks on Israelis.

In the pre-dawn hours on Thursday, Israeli forces also shot dead a Palestinian accused of killing two settlers in the West Bank last October, following a two-month manhunt.

Ashraf Naalweh, 23, was killed during the arrest raid in Askar refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Nablus Earlier, according to Palestinian security sources. The army has withheld his body.

In another overnight raid on a West Bank village, Israeli forces shot dead Salah Omar Barghouti, who was suspected to be behind a drive-by shooting on Sunday, in which seven Israeli settlers were wounded near the Ofra settlement.

Wafa said the 29-year-old Barghouti was driving his cab when Israeli soldiers opened fire at his vehicle near Surda, north of Ramallah, and that undercover Israeli forces seized his body.

Army units raided the Barghouti residence in the village of Kobar, north of Ramallah, and arrested his father and brothers, Wafa reported.

In the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man, Majd Muteir, after he injured two Israeli police officers in an alleged stabbing attack before dawn. One of the officers was moderately injured, the other lightly.

Israeli forces prevented Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound for dawn prayers and were heavily present in the streets of the Old City.

The fourth Palestinian was killed on Thursday afternoon, after an alleged car ramming attempt on a group of soldiers in Ramallah's twin city of al-Bireh.

The man was identified as 60-year-old Hamdan Tawfiq al-Ardah.

'Serious security situation'

Speaking from West Jerusalem, Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett said the events in the past 24 hours have been "very bloody - one that the occupied West Bank hasn't seen for a good deal of time".

"We have the pretty extraordinary circumstance of the entire city of Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in Area A - where Palestinian administration is supposed to have at least nominal authority - has been sealed off as a closed military zone," he added.

Regarding the alleged car ramming attack, Fawcett said that the official Palestine TV reported that "it might not have been a deliberate attack, [but] there might have been a loss of control instead."

He added, "It's certainly a very serious security situation that is still prevailing in the occupied West Bank."

A total of 56 Palestinians across the West Bank and Jerusalem were also arrested by the Israeli army early Thursday morning.

In the aftermath of the overnight killings, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with rocks on the busy Route 60 highway, south of Nablus.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 69 Palestinians were injured in protests against the Israeli army raids into Ramallah and various other towns and villages in the West Bank.

Undercover Israeli forces posing as Palestinians, known as Mustaribeen, were seen by locals roaming the streets of Beiteen village, northwest of Ramallah.

The closures in the West Bank has led to Fatah, the ruling party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to announce their offices will be open for those who are unable to reach their homes.

Additional reporting by Ibrahim Husseini </s> "We are in a new period in which life in Judea and Samaria is back on track," Mr Lieberman said in a statement using the Biblical term for the West Bank.

Mr Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Mr Trump at the White House on February 15, and the two men are expected to seek understandings on Israeli construction plans for the West Bank.

The announcement followed a military order, dated Monday, for residents of Amona to evacuate the area within 48 hours. Israeli media said residents could be removed as early as Wednesday morning.

Israel's supreme court ruled in 2014 that Amona was built on private Palestinian land and must be demolished. It has set February 8 as the final date for it to be destroyed.

Amona is the largest of about 100 unauthorised outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government.

The outpost, built in the 1990s, stretches out over a rugged, grassy hilltop and looks out across the valley onto Palestinian villages.

The Ynet news site said Israeli forces had cordoned off the outpost, but hundreds of youths managed to infiltrate to resist the impending evacuation.

In 2006, Israeli police demolished nine homes at Amona, setting off clashes pitting settlers and their supporters against police and soldiers. Several dozen trailers have remained and the outpost has become a symbol for the settlement movement.

Its fate has threatened to rupture Mr Netanyahu's narrow coalition, which is dominated by ultranationalists who support settlements.

Mr Netanyahu has struggled to find a balance between appeasing his settler constituents and respecting Israel's supreme court, which has drawn the ire of hard-liners by ruling against the settlers. </s> If Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar had made their visit to “Palestine,” their time would have been devoted exclusively to bashing Israel. Their attacks would have combined American-style leftism with Palestinian religious solidarity. And yet, as Scott has pointed out more than once, there are obvious tensions between Islam and the contemporary Left, as embodied by the Squad. What branch of Islam is it, exactly, that celebrates abortion, homosexuality and transgenderism?

It would be interesting to see a reporter ask Tlaib or Omar about this news story: “PA Bans LGBTQ Activities In West Bank.”

The Palestinian Authority has banned members of the Palestinian Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community from carrying out any activities in the West Bank. The ban came after the grassroots group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society, (Arabic for the bow), which engages and supports Palestinians who identify as LGBT, was planning to hold a gathering for its members in Nablus at the end of this month. … Explaining the decision to ban the LGBT group from operating in PA-controlled areas, Luay Zreikat, spokesperson for the PA Police, said that such activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.” Zreikat said that the group’s activities were completely “unrelated to religions and Palestinian traditions and customs, especially in the city of Nablus.” He accused unnamed “dubious parties” of working to “create discord and harm civic peace in Palestinian society.” The PA police will chase those behind the LGBT group and see to it that they are brought to trial once they are arrested, Zreikat warned. He further appealed to Palestinians to report to the police about any person connected to the group.

Members of the Al-Qaws group report receiving death threats. (“[M]any are calling for our execution. We are afraid for our lives.”) Of course, it could be worse. They could be in Iran, where Omar says all problems are caused by the U.S. There, they would be hanged from cranes. We eagerly await comment from Rashida and Ilhan. </s> JERUSALEM (JTA) — An Israeli settler opened fire on a group of Palestinians throwing rocks at his car, killing one and injuring a journalist.

The shooter, a father of eight from Itamar in the West Bank who was on his way home from the supermarket, said he felt his life was in danger when he opened fire Thursday afternoon into a crowd of 200 Palestinians who were protesting in solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to reports citing the Israel Defense Forces.

The man and his wife, who also was in the car, told Ynet that the rioters encircled the car and they feared they would be lynched. Both the front and back windshield were smashed and the sides of the car pocked with dents from rocks, according to reports.

The killed Palestinian was identified by the Palestinian Maan news agency as Muataz Hussein Hilal Bani Shamsa, 23, from the Nablus-area village of Beita. He was shot in the head and died of his wounds at the scene. The injured journalist was identified as Associated Press photographer Majdi Eshtiya, who was shot in the hand.

Following the shooting, the Israel Defense Forces broke up the mob using non-lethal riot-dispersal methods, according to reports.

A similar incident occurred the day before near the Palestinian village of Silwad in the West Bank. The Israeli settler who shot and wounded a Palestinian man who threw rocks at his car was detained, but was released after proving it was in self-defense. The Palestinian rock thrower also was detained. </s> JERUSALEM (JTA) — A Palestinian man attempting to stab an Israeli man at a West Bank gas station was shot in the head by an armed civilian who witnessed the attack.

The assailant, identified as a 31-year-old resident of Nablus, was taken to the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem in serious condition following the early Sunday afternoon incident.

The attempted attack took place at a gas station near the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, in the Mishmor Adumim industrial area, according to reports citing Israel Police. The alleged assailant ran after the Israeli man brandishing a screwdriver.

Three people who witnessed the attack were treated for shock, according to reports.
Border Police announce they have detained an unnamed man who tried to bring a pipe bomb into Samaria Military Court in Salim, Nablus, on the West Bank.