Bodies of Mohammed Sinwar found along with other Hamas commanders: Hebrew media
As of now, neither Hamas nor its military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, has confirmed the reports.
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Ammon
2 hours ago
- Ammon
U.S. envoy Witkoff to meet Israeli, Qatari officials in Rome in Gaza ceasefire push
Ammon News - White House Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff plans to meet in Rome on Thursday with senior Qatari and Israeli officials to continue negotiations over the Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, two sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios. The trilateral meeting in Rome will take place as negotiators from Hamas and Israel holding indirect negotiations in Doha on the last sticking points. Witkoff made it clear to the parties in recent weeks that he will join the talks in Doha only if a deal is close at hand. But sources with knowledge of the issue said that the meeting in Rome is a signal that a deal might be a matter of days away. Witkoff is expected to depart for Rome on Wednesday and arrive on Thursday for a meeting with Israeli minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer and a senior Qatari envoy. It will be a follow-up to a similar meeting between the three at the White House two weeks ago. If sufficient progress is made, Witkoff will travel from Rome to Doha toward the end of the week to try and seal the deal, according to a U.S. source and an Israeli source familiar with the details. Israel and mediators from Qatar, Egypt and the U.S. are waiting for Hamas' response to the latest proposal.
Ammon
2 hours ago
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Beyond Gaza's shadow: The unseen war for the West Bank's future
Israel is meticulously following a textbook model of instigating unrest in the occupied West Bank. The latest such provocations consisted of stripping the Palestinian-run Hebron (Al-Khalil) municipality of its administrative powers over the venerable Ibrahimi Mosque. Worse, according to Israel Hayom, it granted these powers to the religious council of the Kiryat Arba Jewish settlement, an extremist settler body. Though all Jewish settlers in occupied Palestine can be qualified as extremists, the approximately 7,500 inhabitants of Kiryat Arba represent a more virulent category. This settlement, established in 1972, serves as a strategic foothold to justify subjecting Hebron to stricter military control than virtually any other part of the West Bank. Kiryat Arba is infamously linked to Baruch Goldstein, the US-Israeli settler who, in February 1994, unleashed a horrific attack. He opened fire at Muslim worshipers kneeling for dawn prayer at the Ibrahimi Mosque, mercilessly killing 29. This bloodbath was swiftly followed by another, where the Israeli army brutally cracked down on Palestinian protesters in Hebron and across the West Bank, murdering an additional 25 Palestinians. Yet, the Israeli Shamgar Commission, tasked with investigating the massacre, resolved in 1994 that the Palestinian mosque, a site of profound religious significance, was to be grotesquely divided: 63% allocated to Jewish worshipers and a mere 37% to Palestinian Muslims. Since that calamitous decision, oppressive restrictions have been systematically imposed. These include pervasive surveillance and, at times, unjustifiable, extended closures of the site, solely for exclusive settler use. The latest decision, described by Israel Hayom as "historic and unprecedented," is profoundly dangerous. It places the fate of this historic Palestinian mosque directly into the hands of those fanatically keen on acquiring the holy site in its entirety. But the Ibrahimi Mosque is merely a microcosm of something far more sinister underway across the West Bank. Israel has exploited its war in Gaza to dramatically escalate its violence, carry out mass arrests, confiscate vast tracts of land, systematically destroy Palestinian farms and orchards, and aggressively expand illegal settlements. Though the West Bank, previously largely subdued by joint Israeli military pressures and Palestinian Authority crackdowns, was not a direct party to the October 7, 2023, assault nor the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, it has inexplicably become a major focus for Israeli military measures. In the first year of the war, over 10,400 Palestinians were detained in Israeli army crackdowns, with thousands held without charge. Furthermore, hundreds of Palestinians have been forcibly ethnically cleansed, largely from the northern West Bank, where entire refugee camps and towns have been systematically destroyed in protracted Israeli military campaigns. Israel's overarching aim remains the strangulation of the West Bank. This is achieved by severing communities using ubiquitous military checkpoints, imposing total closures of vast regions, and the cruel suspension of work permits for Palestinian laborers, who are almost entirely dependent on the Israeli work market for survival. This insidious plan also explicitly targeted all Palestinian holy sites, including the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, and the Ibrahimi Mosque. Even when these shrines were nominally accessible, age restrictions and suffocating military checkpoints make it difficult, at times utterly impossible, for Palestinians to worship there. In August 2024, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asserted that his relentless violent campaign against the West Bank was part of confronting the "broader Iran terror axis." Practically, this statement served as a green light for the Israeli army to treat the West Bank as an extension of the ongoing Israeli genocide on Gaza. By mid-July 2025, over 900 Palestinians had been killed by the Israeli army in the West Bank, while at least 15 were murdered by settlers. As Palestinians were pushed further against the wall, with no centralized strategy by their leadership to meaningfully resist, Israel exponentially increased its illegal settlement constructions and the brazen legalization of numerous outposts, many built illegally even by Israeli government standards. Israel's actions in the West Bank were not a sudden deviation but consistent with a long-standing, insidious scheme. This includes a plan solidified by the Israeli Knesset in 2020 that allowed Israel to officially annex the West Bank. Israel's ultimate goal has always been to confine the majority of Palestinians into Bantustan-like enclaves, while asserting full control over the vast majority of the region. In August 2023, extremist National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir articulated this sinister vision: "My right, the right of my wife and my children to move around Judea and Samaria (the occupied West Bank) is more important than freedom of movement for the Arabs." More coercive measures swiftly followed, including Knesset laws to significantly curtail UNRWA operations, and further legislation to entrench de facto annexation. Last May, Smotrich audaciously announced 22 more settlements. On July 2, 14 Israeli ministers made a public call on Netanyahu to immediately annex the West Bank. In fact, every action Israel has undertaken, especially since the commencement of its devastating genocide in Gaza, has been carefully calculated to culminate in the irreversible annexation of the West Bank - a process that would inevitably be followed by declaring native inhabitants persona non grata in their own homeland. This level of systemic pressure and oppression will ultimately lead to a popular explosion. Though suppressed by the brutality of the Israeli army, the terror of armed settlers, and the suppressive actions of the Palestinian Authority, the breaking point is fast approaching. Those in the West who preach hollow calls for calm and de-escalation must understand the region is hurtling towards the brink. Neither diplomatic platitudes nor sterile press releases will suffice to avert the catastrophe. They are advised to act decisively against Israel's destructive policies, and they must act immediately. Ramzy Baroud is a journalist, author and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of six books. His latest book, co-edited with Ilan Pappé, is 'Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders and Intellectuals Speak Out'. His other books include 'My Father was a Freedom Fighter' and 'The Last Earth'. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA)
Ammon
3 hours ago
- Ammon
Israeli airstrikes kill seven including children in Gaza City
Ammon News - At least seven Palestinians, including children and an unborn baby, were killed in the early hours of Wednesday after an Israeli airstrike targeted a residential apartment in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, southwest of Gaza City. Local sources reported that the strike hit an apartment belonging to the Sha'er family, near Al-Falah Mosque, killing seven civilians, including a child and a fetus still in its mother's womb. Several others sustained injuries in the attack. Meanwhile, medical personnel were also wounded when an Israeli airstrike targeted an ambulance near Hamad Rehabilitation Hospital in northwest Gaza City. According to medical sources, the ambulance crew was struck while attempting to evacuate the wounded from the area. The deadly overnight assault follows a bloody Tuesday, during which 85 Palestinians were killed, including at least 31 people waiting for humanitarian aid, as Israeli bombardments continued across the besieged Gaza Strip. WAFA
