middle-east
Officials: Landslide at Shiite shrine in Iraq kills 7
A landslide collapsed the ceiling of a Shiite shrine in central Iraq over the weekend and killed at least seven people, including a child, officials said Monday as rescuers continued to search for survivors.
The landslide struck Qattarat al-Imam Ali shrine near the holy city of Karbala, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, on Saturday.
According to Iraq's civil defense, the landslide hit the ceiling of the shrine, which lies in a natural depression, causing it to cave in and dumping a stream of rock and mud inside the structure. The entrance, walls and the minarets of the shrine, which was built on the place of a water source in the desert, remained standing.
Also read: 31 dead in India flash floods & landslides
Among the dead were four women, two men and a child, the civil defense said, adding that search teams had rescued six people. On Monday, rescuers were using a bulldozer to try to remove the rubble and search for survivors.
The cause of the landslide was not immediately known. The civil defense blamed high humidity for the landslide.
Also read: avy flooding, landslides destroy buildings, roads in China
US Air Force targeted in 'propaganda attack' in Kuwait
The U.S. Air Force said Saturday it was the subject of a “propaganda attack” by a previously unheard-of Iraqi militant group that falsely claimed it had launched a drone attack targeting American troops at an air base in Kuwait.
The statement by the Air Force's 386th Air Expeditionary Wing came hours after the group calling itself Al-Waretheen, or “The Inheritors," put out an online statement claiming that on Aug. 12, it targeted Kuwait's Ali Al Salem Air Base. The statement included a video showing a drone being launched from a stand, but offered no evidence of an attack or any damage done at the base.
The statement claimed the alleged attack aimed to avenge the U.S. drone strike that killed a prominent Iranian Revolution Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in January 2020.
Read: Ex-premier’s graft case a test of justice in oil-rich Kuwait
The air base is located a few dozen kilometers (miles) from the Iraqi border.
“The misinformation falsely stated an Iranian militia group used (drones) to carry out an attack on base,” the Air Force statement to The Associated Press said. “No such attack occurred.”
The statement suggests the U.S. believes that Al-Waretheen is likely an Iranian group, though it described itself as Iraqi.
The Air Force added that the online claim “only aims to deceive their audience in believing a lie" and that the Air Force and Kuwait “continue to project air power throughout the region without disruption.”
Kuwait, a small, oil-rich nation bordering Iraq and Saudi Arabia also near Iran, is considered a major non-NATO ally of the United States. Kuwait and the U.S. have had a close military partnership since America launched the 1991 Gulf War to expel Iraqi troops after Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded the country.
Some 13,500 American troops are stationed in Kuwait, which also hosts U.S. Army Central’s forward headquarters. Those forces have supported the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and later operations against the Islamic State group.
Kuwait did not immediately acknowledge the claimed attack. Its Information Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Saturday night.
Kuwait’s Al-Qabas newspaper, quoting anonymous “responsible” sources, called the claims about an attack “completely untrue.”
Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP since Aug. 12 show no apparent damage at the base.
A series of militant groups that analysts believe have ties back to Iran have claimed attacks they say targeted U.S. troops in Iraq over recent years. However, those roadside bombings targeted Iraqi contractors supplying American forces in the country.
The claim also comes as what have been described as the final round of negotiations continue between Iran and the U.S. over Tehran's tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
Market blast in north Syria kills at least 9, wounds dozens
A rocket attack on a crowded market in a town held by Turkey-backed opposition fighters in northern Syria Friday killed at least nine people and wounded dozens, an opposition war monitor and a paramedic group reported.
The attack on the town of al-Bab came days after a Turkish airstrike killed at least 11 Syrian troops and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, blamed Syrian government forces for the shelling, saying it was in retaliation for the Turkish airstrike.
The Observatory said the attack killed at least 10 and wounded more than 30.
Also read: Lebanon announces plan to repatriate Syrian refugees
The opposition’s Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, had a lower death toll, saying nine people, including children, were killed and 28 were wounded. The paramedic group said its members evacuated some of the wounded and the dead bodies.
Discrepancies in casualty figures immediately after attacks are not uncommon in Syria.
Turkey has launched three major cross-border operations into Syria since 2016 and controls some territories in the north.
Also read: Syrians in desperate need of aid hit hard by Ukraine fallout
Although the fighting has waned over the past few years, shelling and airstrikes are not uncommon in northern Syria that is home to the last major rebel stronghold in the country.
Syria’s conflict that began in March 2011, has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced half the country’s pre-war population of 23 million.
President Bashar Assad’s forces have regained control of most parts of Syria over the past few years, with the help of their allies, Russia and Iran.
Article on ‘fat’ Arab women sparks uproar over body-shaming
To Enas Taleb, the headline felt like a spiteful punch line.
“Why women are fatter than men in the Arab world,” it read in bold, above a photograph of the Iraqi actress waving onstage at an arts festival.
The Economist article ran through possible explanations of the obesity gap of 10 percentage points between men and women in the Middle East, then cited Iraqis who see Taleb’s curves as the ideal of beauty.
“Fat,” a word now considered taboo in much of Western media, was repeated six times.
The article triggered torrid criticism on social media. Twitter users blasted it as misogynistic. Local rights groups issued denunciations. Some writers were appalled by what they described as demeaning stereotypes about Arab women.
Taleb, 42, said she’s suing the London-based magazine for defamation.
While analysts acknowledge an epidemic of obesity in the Arab world and its connection to poverty and gender discrimination, Taleb’s case and the ensuing uproar have thrown a light on the issue of body-shaming that is deeply rooted yet rarely discussed in the region.
“If there’s a student who goes to school and hears mean comments and students bullying her for being fat, how would she feel?” Taleb told The Associated Press from Baghdad. “This article is an insult not only to me but a violation of the rights of all Iraqi and Arab women.”
The Economist did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Fat-shaming is offensive enough in the United States that when two sports commentators called some female athletes overweight on air earlier this year, they were swiftly fired.
In the Middle East, the report argued, the desirability of fleshy women may help explain why the region has experienced an explosion of obesity.
But the angry backlash over the article — and Taleb’s horror that her photo was used to illustrate growing waistlines of Arab women — contradicts the oft-repeated belief that being heavy is widely seen as sign of affluence and fertility in the region.
The globalization of Western beauty ideals through branding, TV and social media has long given rise to unrealistic body standards that skew women’s expectations of themselves and others in the Arab world, research shows.
In a forthcoming study on Egypt, Joan Costa-Font at the London School of Economics said he found that although some older women in rural areas still view rounder women as affluent, “it’s not true in Egypt that being overweight is a sign of beauty. ... Western standards are more relevant.”
Demand for cosmetic surgery has boomed in Lebanon. Some 75% of female Emirati students reported dissatisfaction with their bodies, and 25% are prone to eating disorders, according to a 2010 study at Dubai’s Zayed University.
And yet, many say, fat-shaming remains widespread and acceptable in the region, compared to the U.S. and Europe, where self-esteem movements have gained momentum and galvanized public discussions around inclusivity.
“Our politicians in Lebanon keep making these horrible, sexist comments about women’s bodies. If they come under fire that doesn’t necessarily lead to rising awareness,” said Joumana Haddad, a Lebanese author and human rights activist.
Read: 'Beautifully Me': Nabela Noor's book will teach you self-love
Haddad noted that new forays into female empowerment have provoked “reactionary discourse and anger” from Lebanon’s patriarchal society. Even cavalier public comments about weight can be deeply painful to young women who struggle with insecurity and a pathological will to alter their bodies in pursuit of beauty, she added.
“I’m a 51-year-old harsh, angry feminist and I still weigh myself every single morning,” Haddad said. “You can imagine how hard it is for people who have been less privileged.”
Ameni Esseibi, a Tunisian-born woman who overcame social stigma to become the Arab world’s first plus-sized model, said body positivity remains taboo in the Middle East even as populations have become more overweight.
“Kuwaitis are plus-sized, Saudis are plus-sized. But people are ashamed. They weren’t taught to be confident in this judgmental society,” Esseibi said. “We always want to be skinny, to look good, to get married to the most powerful guy.”
But, she said, there are signs of growing awareness. After years of ignoring vulgar comments about women’s bodies, Arabs are increasingly turning to social media to vent their anger.
The Economist article’s depiction of men “shutting women up at home” to keep them “Rubenesque” touched a nerve.
The Baghdad-based Heya, or “She,” Foundation, which advocates for women in media, denounced the report as “bullying” and demanded the magazine apologize to Taleb.
The Malaysia-based Musawah Foundation, which promotes equality in the Muslim world, said the backlash shows that “women in the region are building a collective discourse that rejects and calls out sexist, racist, and fat-phobic acts and their colonial legacies.”
Taleb, a talk show host and star in blockbuster Iraqi TV dramas, said she had no choice but to speak up.
“They used my photo in this context in a hurtful, negative way,” she said. “I am against using one’s body shape to determine the value of a human being.”
Her lawyer, Samantha Kane, said she has begun legal action, first sending a letter to The Economist demanding an apology for “serious harm caused to (Taleb) and her career.”
Kane declined further comment pending the magazine’s response.
Taleb said she hopes her defamation case serves as “a message” for women “to say, I love myself ... to be strong, to confront those difficulties.”
It’s a message that resonates in a region where women see the odds as stacked against them. Traditional attitudes, discriminatory legislation and pay disparities, on top of rigid beauty standards, hinder women’s advancement.
“Women don’t get equal salaries. They don’t get high-level positions. They are forced to keep silent when they are harassed. And in media, they have to be thin and beautiful,” said Zeina Tareq, Heya Foundation’s director.
In Taleb’s home country of Iraq, where safety is scarce after years of conflict, outspoken women also face the threat of targeted killings.
Iraqi journalist Manar al-Zubaidi said the fat-shaming of Arab women comes as no surprise in a world where “most media outlets commodify women and make them into objects of ridicule or temptation.”
“There is nothing to deter them,” she added, except ever-louder “campaigns and challenges on social media.”
Iran submits a ‘written response’ in nuclear deal talks
Iran said Tuesday it submitted a “written response” to what has been described as a final roadmap to restore its tattered nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency offered no details on the substance of its response, but suggested that Tehran still wouldn’t take the European Union-mediated proposal, despite warnings there would be no more negotiations.
“The differences are on three issues, in which the United States has expressed its verbal flexibility in two cases, but it should be included in the text,” the IRNA report said. “The third issue is related to guaranteeing the continuation of (the deal), which depends on the realism of the United States.”
Tehran under hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi has repeatedly tried to blame Washington for the delay in reaching an accord. Monday was reported to have been a deadline for Iran’s response.
Nabila Massrali, a spokesperson for the EU on foreign affairs and security policy, told The Associated Press that the EU received Iran’s response on Monday night.
“We are studying it and are consulting with the other JCPOA participants and the U.S. on the way ahead,” she said, using an acronym for the formal name for the nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The EU has been the go-between in the indirect talks as Iran refused to negotiate directly with America since then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the accord in 2018.
In Washington, State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters that the U.S. had also received Iran’s comments through the EU and was “in the process of studying them.”
“We are, at the same time, engaged in consultations with the EU and our European allies on the way ahead,” he said.
Price reiterated that the U.S. agrees with the EU’s “fundamental point” that “what could be negotiated over the course of these past 16, 17 months has been negotiated.”
In previous comments Monday, Price accused Iran of making “unacceptable demands” beyond the text of the 2015 nuclear deal, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
“If Iran wants these sanctions lifted, they will need to alter their underlying conduct,” Price said. “They will need to change the dangerous activities that gave rise to these sanctions in the first place.”
As of the last public count, Iran has a stockpile of some 3,800 kilograms (8,370 pounds) of enriched uranium. Under the deal, Tehran could enrich uranium to 3.67% purity, while maintaining a stockpile of uranium of 300 kilograms (660 pounds) under constant scrutiny of surveillance cameras and international inspectors.
Iran now enriches uranium up to 60% purity — a level it never reached before and one that is a short, technical step away from 90%. Nonproliferation experts warn Iran now has enough 60%-enriched uranium to reprocess into fuel for at least one nuclear bomb. Meanwhile, the surveillance cameras have been turned off and other footage has been seized by Iran.
However, Iran still would need to design a bomb and a delivery system for it, likely a monthslong project. Tehran insists its program is peaceful, though the West and the International Atomic Energy Agency say Iran had an organized military nuclear program until 2003.
Iran denies involvement but justifies Salman Rushdie attack
An Iranian official Monday denied Tehran was involved in the stabbing of author Salman Rushdie, though he sought to justify the attack in the Islamic Republic's first public comments on the bloodshed.
The remarks by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, came three days after Rushdie was wounded in New York state. The writer has been taken off a ventilator and is “on the road to recovery,” according to his agent.
Rushdie, 75, has faced death threats for more than 30 years over his novel “The Satanic Verses," whose depiction of the Prophet Muhammad was seen by some Muslims as blasphemous.
In 1989, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, demanding the author's death, and while Iran has not focused on Rushdie in recent years, the decree still stands.
Also read: Author Salman Rushdie stabbed on lecture stage in New York
Also, a semiofficial Iranian foundation had posted a bounty of over $3 million for the killing of the author. It has not commented on the attack.
“Regarding the attack against Salman Rushdie in America, we don’t consider anyone deserving reproach, blame or even condemnation, except for (Rushdie) himself and his supporters,” Kanaani said.
“In this regard, no one can blame the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added. “We believe that the insults made and the support he received was an insult against followers of all religions.”
Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad against dissidents in the years since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, though prosecutors and Western governments have attributed such attacks to Tehran.
Also read: Iran denies being involved in attack on Salman Rushdie
Rushdie was attacked Friday as he was about to give a lecture in western New York. He suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, according to his agent, Andrew Wylie. Rushdie is likely to lose the eye, Wylie said.
His alleged assailant, Hadi Matar, pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and assault.
Matar, 24, was born in the U.S. to parents who emigrated from Yaroun in southern Lebanon near the Israeli border, according to the village’s mayor.
Matar had lived in recent years in New Jersey with his mother, who told London's Daily Mail that her son became moody and more religious after a month-long trip to Lebanon in 2018.
“I was expecting him to come back motivated, to complete school, to get his degree and a job. But instead he locked himself in the basement. He had changed a lot, he didn’t say anything to me or his sisters for months,” Silvana Fardos said.
Village records in Yaroun show Matar holds Lebanese citizenship and is a Shiite, an official there said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of security concerns, said Matar’s father lives there but has been in seclusion since the attack.
Flags of the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah, along with portraits of Hezbollah and Iranian leaders, hang across the village. Israel has bombarded Hezbollah positions near there in the past.
Police in New York have offered no motive for the attack, though District Attorney Jason Schmidt alluded to the bounty on Rushdie in arguing against bail during a hearing over the weekend.
“Even if this court were to set a million dollars bail, we stand a risk that bail could be met,” Schmidt said.
In his remarks Monday, Kanaani added that Iran did not "have any other information more than what the American media has reported.” He also implied that Rushdie brought the attack on himself.
“Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular anger and fury through insulting the sacredness of Islam and crossing the red lines of over 1.5 billion Muslims and also red lines of followers of all divine religions,” Kanaani said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while not directly blaming Tehran for the attack on Rushdie, denounced Iran in a statement Monday praising the writer's support for freedom of expression and religion.
“Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life,” Blinken said. “This is despicable.”
State Department spokesman Ned Price, speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday, condemned the Iranian government for blaming Rushdie for the attack. “It’s despicable. It’s disgusting. We condemn it,” he said.
“We have heard Iranian officials seek to incite to violence over the years, of course, with the initial fatwa, but even more recently with the gloating that has taken place in the aftermath of this attack on his life. This is something that is absolutely outrageous."
While fatwas can be revoked, Iran’s current supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who took over after Khomeini's death, has never done so. As recently as 2017, Khamenei said: “The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.”
Tensions between Iran and the West, particularly the U.S., have spiked since then-President Donald Trump pulled America out of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
A Trump-ordered drone strike killed a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard general in 2020, heightening those tensions.
Last week, the U.S. charged a Guard member in absentia with plotting to kill one-time Trump adviser and Iran hawk John Bolton. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aide are under 24-hour security over alleged threats from Iran.
U.S. prosecutors also say Iran tried in 2021 to kidnap an Iranian opposition activist and writer living in New York. In recent days, a man with an assault rifle was arrested near her home.
Iran denies being involved in attack on Salman Rushdie
An Iranian government official denied on Monday that Tehran was involved in the assault on author Salman Rushdie, in remarks that were the country’s first public comments on the attack.
The comments by Nasser Kanaani, the spokesman of Iran’s Foreign Ministry, come over two days after the attack on Rushdie in New York.
However, Iran has denied carrying out other operations abroad targeting dissidents in the years since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, despite prosecutors and Western governments attributing such attacks back to Tehran.
“We, in the incident of the attack on Salman Rushdie in the U.S., do not consider that anyone deserves blame and accusations except him and his supporters,” Kanaani said. “Nobody has right to accuse Iran in this regard.”
Rushdie, 75, was stabbed Friday while attending an event in western New York. He suffered a damaged liver and severed nerves in an arm and an eye, his agent said. He was likely to lose the injured eye.
His assailant, 24-year-old Hadi Matar, has pleaded not guilty to charges stemming from the attack through his lawyer.
The award-winning author for more than 30 years has faced death threats for “The Satanic Verses.” Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had issued a fatwa, or Islamic edict, demanding his death. A semiofficial Iranian foundation had put up a bounty of over $3 million for the author, though it has yet to offer any comment on the attack.
Kanaani added that Iran did not “have any other information more than what the American media has reported.”
Read:Salman Rushdie ‘on the road to recovery,’ agent says
The West “condemning the actions of the attacker and in return glorifying the actions of the insulter to Islamic beliefs is a contradictory attitude,” Kanaani said.
Khomeini, in poor health in the last year of his life after the grinding, stalemated 1980s Iran-Iraq war had decimated the country’s economy, issued the fatwa on Rushdie in 1989. The Islamic edict came amid a violent uproar in the Muslim world over the novel, which some viewed as blasphemously making suggestions about the Prophet Muhammad’s life.
While fatwas can be revised or revoked, Iran’s current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — who took over after Khomeini — has never done so. As recently as February 2017, Khamenei said: “The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.”
Since 1979, Iran has targeted dissidents abroad in attacks. Tensions with the West — particularly the United States — have spiked since then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled America out of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.
A Trump-ordered drone strike killed a top Iranian Revolutionary Guard general in 2020, further fueling those tensions.
Last week, the U.S. charged a Guard member in absentia for allegedly plotting to kill one-time Trump adviser and Iran hawk John Bolton. Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and an aide are under 24-hour security over alleged threats from Iran.
Meanwhile, U.S. prosecutors say Iran tried to kidnap in 2021 an Iranian opposition activist and writer living in New York. In recent days, a man with an assault rifle was arrested near her home.
Other denials from the Foreign Ministry have included Tehran’s transfer of weapons to Yemen’s Houthi rebels amid that country’s long civil war. Independent experts, Western nations and U.N. experts have traced weapon components back to Iran.
High oil prices help Saudi Aramco earn $88B in first half
Saudi energy company Aramco said Sunday its profits jumped 90% in the second quarter compared to the same time last year, helping its half-year earnings reach nearly $88 billion. The increase is a boon for the kingdom and the crown prince's spending power as people around the world pay higher oil prices at the pump.
Aramco's net profits for the first half of the year were helped by strong second-quarter earnings that hit $48.4 billion — a figure higher than the first full half year of 2021, when profits reached just $47 billion.
The oil and gas company, which is nearly entirely state-owned by Saudi Arabia, said this sets a new quarterly earnings record for Aramco since it first floated around 5% of the company on the Saudi stock market in late 2019.
Aramco said profits were helped by higher crude oil prices and volumes sold, as well as higher refining margins. The vast oil reserves belonging to Saudi Arabia are among the cheapest to pump and produce in the world.
Aramco’s financial health is crucial to Saudi Arabia’s stability. Despite years of efforts to diversify the economy, the kingdom continues to rely heavily on oil and gas sales for revenue in order to pay public sector wages, subsidies, generous benefits to Saudi citizens, keep up its defense spending and carry out Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's Vision 2030 infrastructure goals.
Brent crude has been trading at around $100 a barrel, even as OPEC, led by Saudi Arabia, and non-OPEC producers, led by Russia, have incrementally increased production levels that had been cut during the height of the pandemic.
Aramco President CEO Amin Nasser said the latest financial results reflect increasing demand for oil, even as countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia, pledge to cut their carbon emissions to avert catastrophic global warming levels driven by the burning of fossil fuels.
“The world is calling out for affordable, reliable energy and we are answering that call," he said, before adding that Aramco expects oil demand to continue to grow for the rest of the decade, despite downward economic pressures and inflation.
“At a time when the world is worrying about energy security, you are investing in the future of our business. Our customers know that whatever happens, Aramco will always deliver,” Nasser said in a short video released with the financial results.
Saudi Arabia is currently producing around 10 million barrels per day, with much of that exported to Asia and its largest customer, China. The crown prince said last month that the kingdom's maximum production capacity is 13 million barrels per day, and Aramco said it is working to expand its scope to one day reach that ceiling.
The company will pay a dividend of $18.8 billion for the second quarter to shareholders, as it has promised to do since its IPO. The higher profits bode well for the Saudi government, which is the main shareholder of Aramco.
8 Israelis wounded in Jerusalem shooting
A gunman opened fire at a bus near Jerusalem’s Old City early Sunday, wounding eight Israelis in a suspected Palestinian attack that came a week after violence flared up between Israel and militants in Gaza, police and medics said.
Two of the victims were in serious condition, including a pregnant woman with abdominal injuries and a man with gunshot wounds to the head and neck, according to Israeli hospitals treating them.
The shooting occurred as the bus waited in a parking lot near the Western Wall, which is considered the holiest site where Jews can pray.
Israeli police said forces were dispatched to the scene to investigate. Israeli security forces also pushed into the nearby Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan pursuing the suspected attacker.
The attack in Jerusalem followed a tense week between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Read:Death toll from weekend Israel-Gaza fighting rises to 47
Last weekend, Israeli aircraft unleashed an offensive in the Gaza Strip targeting the militant group Islamic Jihad and setting off three days of fierce cross-border fighting. Islamic Jihad fired hundreds of rockets during the flare-up to avenge the airstrikes, which killed two of its commanders and other militants. Israel said the attack was meant to thwart threats from the group to respond to the arrest of one of its officials in the occupied West Bank.
Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children and 14 militants, were killed, and several hundred were injured in the fighting, which ended with an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire. No Israeli was killed or seriously injured.
The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, stayed on the sidelines.
A day after the cease-fire halted the worst round of Gaza fighting in more than a year, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants and wounded dozens in a shootout that erupted during an arrest raid in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Death toll from weekend Israel-Gaza fighting rises to 47
The death toll from last weekend's fighting between Israel and Gaza militants has risen to 47, after a man died from wounds sustained during the violence, the Health Ministry in Gaza said Thursday.
Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Gaza Strip and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group fired more than a thousand rockets over three days of fighting, the worst cross-border violence since an 11-day war with Hamas last year.
According to the Health Ministry, 47 people were killed, among them 16 children and four women. Israeli strikes appear to have killed some 30 people, among them several militants and two senior Islamic Jihad commanders, one of whom Israel said it targeted in order to foil an imminent attack. As many as 16 people might have been killed by rockets misfired by Palestinian militants.
Also read: Cease-fire between Palestinians, Israel takes effect in Gaza
It wasn't immediately clear how the man whose death was announced Thursday was wounded.
A cease-fire took hold Sunday night, bringing an end to the fighting, in which no Israelis were killed or seriously wounded.
Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory’s 2 million Palestinian residents.
Also read: Israel, militants trade fire as Gaza death toll climbs to 24