Israeli forces killed at least nine Palestinians, including a 60-year-old woman, and wounded several others during a raid in a flashpoint area of the occupied West Bank on Thursday, Palestinian health officials said, in the deadliest day in years in the territory. The violence occurred during what Palestinian health officials described as a fierce, daytime operation in the Jenin refugee camp, a militant stronghold of the West Bank that has been a focus of nearly a year of Israeli arrest raids. The conflict spiked this month, with 29 Palestinians killed since the start of the year. It was not immediately clear how many of those killed Thursday were affiliated with armed groups. The fighting comes weeks into Israel's new government, its most right-wing ever, which has pledged to take a hard line against the Palestinians and ramp up settlement construction on lands the Palestinian seek for their hoped-for state. It also comes days before U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to arrive in the region and push for steps that might improve daily life for the Palestinians. The Israeli military said it was conducting the rare daytime operation because of intelligence it had received that a militant grouping linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which has a major foothold in the camp, was set to carry out imminent attacks against Israelis. A gun battle erupted, during which the military said it targeted the militants. At least one of the dead was identified by Palestinians as a militant. Palestinian Health Minister May Al-Kaila said paramedics were struggling to reach the wounded amid the fighting. She also accused the military of firing tear gas at the pediatric ward of a hospital, causing children to choke. Video from the hospital showed women carrying children out of hospital rooms and into the corridor. The military said tear gas had likely wafted into the hospital from the clashes nearby. Read more: Israeli military kills 3 Palestinians during raids in occupied West Bank Jenin hospital identified the woman killed as Magda Obaid and the Israeli military said it was looking into reports of her death. The Palestinian Health Ministry earlier identified another one of the dead as Saeb Azriqi, 24, who was brought to a hospital in critical condition after being shot, and died from his wounds. And the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority, claimed one of the dead, Izz al-Din Salahat, as a fighter. The ministry said at least 20 people were wounded. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, condemned the violence, calling on the international community to speak out against it. Akram Rajoub, the governor of Jenin, told The Associated Press the military prevented medical teams from evacuating the wounded and fired tear gas that seeped into the government hospital, affecting infants and interrupting surgeries. The military said forces closed roads to facilitate their operation, which may have complicated the efforts of rescue teams to reach the wounded. “We ask that the international community help the Palestinians against this extremist right-wing government and protect our citizens,” he said. The deaths drew condemnation from neighboring Jordan as well as from the militant Islamic Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip. The Islamic Jihad branch in the coastal enclave has repeatedly fought against Israel, most recently in a fierce three-day clash last summer that killed dozens of Palestinians and disrupted the lives of hundreds of thousands of Israelis. Tensions surrounding violence in the West Bank have in the past spilled over to Gaza. “The response of the resistance to what happened today in Jenin camp will not be delayed,” warned top Hamas official Saleh Arouri. Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have soared since Israel launched the raids last spring, following a spate of Palestinian attacks that killed 19 people, while another round of attacks later in the year brought the death toll to 30. Nearly 150 Palestinians were killed last year, making 2022 the deadliest since 2004, according to the Israeli rights group B'Tselem. Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations have also been killed. So far this year, and not including Thursday, one-third of the Palestinians killed by Israeli troops or civilians had ties to armed groups. Israel says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks. The Palestinians say they further entrench Israel's 55-year, open-ended occupation. Read more: Israel troops kill 2 Palestinians during raid in occupied West Bank Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians claim for their hoped-for state. Israel's new far-right government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and propped up by ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox parties, has pledged to put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its priority list and has already announced a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians for pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation.

BNP has claimed that valuables worth over Tk 50.5 lakh were damaged in police attack at its Nayapaltan central office on December 7 and demanded neutral investigation into it. BNP standing committee member Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said this at a press briefing on Sunday at party chairperson’s Gulshan office in the capital. He said looting of laptops, computers, hard disk, documents, bank documents, cash from BNP’s Nayapaltan office was actually an incident of robbery. Read: Police conducted search operation at BNP’s Nayapaltan office for the sake of investigation “According to witnesses, after police action at BNP’s central office, ruling party ‘s miscreants vandalised properties and took part in looting that day with support of the law enforcers on December 7,” said Mosharraf. The way police violated the general law of keeping owner and neutral party as witnesses during any search at any office or residence reminds of the Pakistani military’s  activities during Liberation War, he said. “We strongly condemn and protest the incident and demand neutral probe into it and want justice,” he added. Besides, Khandaker Mosharraf demanded immediate release of BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir , standing committee member Mirza Abaas and other arrested party leaders and activists and demanded withdrawal of cases filed against them. Read: BNP Office Raid: Govt's inhuman attitude exposed to world, says Oli When asked, whether BNP will move the court Khandaker Mosharraf said, “We sought neutral investigation and will see what happens. No further decision has been made yet.” On Dec 7, a Swechchasebak Dal leader was killed and around 50 others were injured in a clash between police and the BNP activists in front of the party’s Nayapaltan central office ahead of its December 10 rally.

Police said they conducted "block raids" on several hotels in Banani and one in Motijheel in the capital Saturday night, suspecting the presence of militants, wanted criminals, and drug peddlers. Police suspect that members of banned militant outfits, drug dealers, and wanted criminals are staying in several hotels and messes in Banani's Kakoli, according to Abdul Ahad, deputy commissioner (DC) of the Gulshan Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police. They barricaded different roads and set up check posts on different roads in Gulshan and Banani, including the one near BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's Gulshan residence. "The raids started at 9pm and will continue. No one has been arrested so far," Ahad said. Police also started conducting a raid in a hotel near Motijheel's Doinik Bangla intersection suspecting the presence of criminals, Yasir Arafat, officer-in-charge of Motijheel Police Station said, adding: "The drive will continue." Police are conducting 15-day operations in hotels across Bangladesh to ensure security ahead of Victory Day. Read more: Kuakata hotel & eatery owners go on indefinite strike over raids

At least 18 people were killed on Thursday during a police raid targeting a crime group at the Almao favelas in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, police reported. Among the dead were a 50-year-old woman, who was hit by a stray bullet during the raid, and a police officer, police spokesman Ivan Blaz said at a press conference. Four suspects accused of killing police officers were arrested during the operation, in which 400 officers were involved and supported by four helicopters and 10 armored vehicles. Read: Death toll from Brazil floods at least 91, with dozens lost Blaz described the situation in the region as "very tense," saying that the criminal ring had expanded from drug trafficking to robbing cargo trucks entering the city of Rio de Janeiro.   The dragnet aimed to locate and arrest the gang members, who planned to enter other favelas Thursday to carry out vehicle thefts, Lieutenant Colonel Uira do Nascimento Ferreira of the Special Operations Battalion of the militarized police in Rio said at the press conference. ■

A police operation Thursday targeting gang members in Rio de Janeiro's largest complex of favelas, or low-income communities, left at least 18 people dead in one of the deadliest raids the city has seen recently and one already bringing more criticism of police violence. Rio authorities said 16 suspected criminals were killed in confrontations with police in Complexo do Alemao along with a police officer and an woman. A police spokesman said the raid targeted a criminal group that stole cars and robbed banks, and invaded nearby neighborhoods. Videos circulating on social media showed intense shootouts between criminals as well as a police helicopter flying low over the small, brick houses. Rio’s police have used helicopters to shoot at targets, even in densely populated residential areas, and video showed shots being fired from the favela at the aircraft. Also read: At least 13 killed in Ecuador prison riot At the site of the raid, Associated Press reporters saw residents carrying about 10 bodies as bystanders shouted, “We want peace!” Residents said those who attempted to help the injured risked arrest. “It’s a massacre inside, which police are calling an operation,” one woman told AP, speaking on the condition of anonymity because she feared reprisals from authorities. ”They’re not letting us help (victims),” she added, saying she saw one man arrested for attempting to do so. A Rio’s police force spokesman said some of the criminals wore uniforms to disguise themselves as police officers. “I would rather they (the suspects) had not reacted and then we could have arrested 15, 14 of them. But unfortunately they chose to fire at our policemen,” said Ronaldo Oliveira, an investigator of Rio’s police. Also read: U.S. embargo negatively affects Cubans' daily lives Rio state Gov. Cláudio Castro said on Twitter he lamented the police officer's death. "I will continue to fight crime with all my strength. We will not back down from the mission of guaranteeing peace and security to the people of our state,” Castro said. But many disagree with the government's strategy for tackling violence and organized crime, an approach that regularly sees deadly police operations. A raid in Rio's Vila Cruzeiro favela in May killed more than 20 people. Thursday's operation was aimed at locating and arresting criminal leaders, some from other states, police said in an early statement. “ENOUGH of this genocidal policy, governor!” Talíria Petrone, a federal lawmaker for Rio, said in response to the governor's tweet. “This failed public security policy leaves residents and police on the ground, en masse. It’s no longer possible to keep piling up Black bodies and favela residents every day!” Alemao is a complex of 13 favelas in northern Rio, home to about 70,000 people. Nearly three-quarters of them are Afro-Brazilians, according to a July 2020 study published by the Brazilian Institute of Social and Economical Analyses. Earlier this year, Brazil’s Supreme Court established a series of conditions for police to conduct raids in Rio’s favelas as a means to reduce police killings and violations of human rights. The court ordered that lethal force be used only in situations in which all other means have been exhausted and when necessary to protect life. The ruling came in response to a raid on the Jacarezinho favela in 2021 that resulted in 28 people being killed. As was the case Thursday, an officer died during that raid, which some speculated at the time was the cause for subsequent abuse and summary executions. Thursday’s operation began before dawn and finished around 4 p.m. local time, police said. Nearly 400 police officers were involved, including Rio’s tactical police unit, backed up by four helicopters and 10 bullet-proofed vehicles, according to the police statement. In a video shared by Voz da Comunidade, a community news outlet focused on Rio’s favelas, residents can be seen calling for peace and waving white cloths from their windows and rooftops. Fabrício Oliveira, one of the coordinators of the police raid, said authorities fear that Friday could be another violent day at the Complexo do Alemao. “Our experience has told us that after raids like these police are attacked in every way,” Oliveira said.

U.S. special forces carried out what the Pentagon said was a large-scale counterterrorism raid in northwestern Syria early Thursday. First responders at the scene reported 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women. The operation, which residents say lasted over two hours, jolted the sleepy village of Atmeh near the Turkish border — an area dotted with camps for internally displaced people from Syria’s civil war. The target of the raid was unclear. “The mission was successful,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said in a brief statement. “There were no U.S. casualties. More information will be provided as it becomes available.” A journalist on assignment for The Associated Press and several residents said they saw body parts scattered near the site of the raid, a house in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province. Most residents spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, and said the raid involved helicopters, explosions and machine-gun fire. Also read: Islamic State strikes from shadows in vulnerable Syria, Iraq It was the largest raid in the province since the 2019 Trump-era U.S. assault that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Idlib is broadly controlled by Turkey-backed fighters, but is also an Al-Qaida stronghold and home to several of its top operatives. Other militants have also found refuge in the region. The top floor of the two-story house, surrounded by olive trees, was almost totally destroyed, with the ceiling and walls knocked out. Blood could be seen on the walls and floor of the remaining structure, which contained a wrecked bedroom with a child’s wooden crib on the floor. On one damaged wall, a blue plastic swing for children was still hanging. The kitchen was blackened with fire damage. The opposition-run Syrian Civil Defense, first responders also known as the White Helmets, said 13 people were killed in shelling and clashes that ensued after U.S. the commando raid. They included six children and four women, it said. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, also said the strike killed 13 people, including four children and two women. Ahmad Rahhal, a citizen journalist who visited the site, reported seeing 12 bodies. The Pentagon provided no details on who was the target of the raid, or if any combatants or civilians on the ground were killed or injured. Residents and activists described witnessing a large ground assault, with U.S. forces using loudspeakers urging women and children to leave the area. Omar Saleh, a nearby resident, said the doors and windows of his house started to rattle to the sound of low-flying aircraft at 1:10 a.m. local time. He then heard a man, speaking Arabic with an Iraqi or Saudi accent through a loudspeaker, urging women to surrender or leave the area. “This went on for 45 minutes. There was no response. Then the machine gun fire erupted,” Saleh said. He said the firing continued for two hours, as aircraft circled the area. Others reported hearing at least one major explosion during the operation. A U.S. official said that one of the helicopters in the raid suffered a mechanical problem and had to be blown up on the ground. The U.S. official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the military operation. The Observatory said troops for the U.S.-led coalition using helicopters landed in the area and attacked a house. It said the force clashed with fighters on the ground. Taher al-Omar, an Idlib-based activist, also said he witnessed clashes between fighters and the U.S. force. Also read: US airstrikes target Iran-backed militias in Syria, Iraq The military operation got attention on social media, with tweets from the region describing helicopters firing around the building near Atmeh. Flight-tracking data also suggested that multiple drones were circling the city of Sarmada and the village of Salwah, just north of the raid’s location. The U.S. has in the past used drones to kill top al-Qaida operatives in Idlib, which at one point was home to the group’s biggest concentration of leaders since the days of Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The fact that special forces landed on the ground suggest the target was believed to be of high value. A similar attack in Pakistan, in 2011, killed bin Laden. Thursday’s clandestine operation came as the Islamic State group was reasserting itself in Syria and Iraq, carrying out some of its biggest attacks since it was defeated in 2019. In recent weeks and months, the group has launched a series of operations in the region, including a 10-day assault late last month to seize a prison in northeastern Syria. A U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force said more than 120 of their fighters and prison workers died in the effort to thwart the IS plot, whose goal appeared to free senior IS operatives from the prison. The prison houses at least 3,000 Islamic State group detainees. The attempted prison break was the biggest military operation by the extremist group since IS was defeated and members scattered to havens in 2019. The U.S.-led coalition carried out airstrikes and deployed American personnel in Bradley Fighting Vehicles to the prison area to help the Kurdish forces. At a news conference Monday, an SDF senior official Nowruz Ahmad said the prison assault was part of a broader plot that IS had been preparing for a long time, including attacks on other neighborhoods in Hassakeh, Shaddada and areas of Deir el-Zour in eastern Syria and on the al-Hol camp in the south, which houses thousands of families of IS members. The U.S.-led coalition has targeted high-profile militants on several occasions in recent years, aiming to disrupt what U.S. officials say is a secretive cell known as the Khorasan group that is planning external attacks. A U.S. airstrike killed al-Qaida’s second in command, former bin Laden aide Abu al-Kheir al-Masri, in Syria in 2017.

Police arrested 13, 942 people and filed 9,821 cases in the capital city during an eight-month special drive against illegal narcotics until August 30, a senior official said on Sunday. Teams from city’s police stations were joined by detectives from Dhaka Metropolitan Police conducted the drive, said Additional Deputy Commissioner (Media) of the DMP Iftekhairul Islam quoting from statistics.  The crackdown saw the recovery of different types of drugs, including 5,898 kgs hemp, 61.66kg heroin, 31,67,723 pieces contraband yaba pills, 44,426 cans bear, 40,554 bottles of phensidyle,13746 ample injections,3746 bottles foreign wine, 6,718 litres of local wine,  opium 10 kg, snake venom four pounds and other contraband drugs and items during the period from January 1 this year, Iftekhairul said.  READ: Almost 14,000 people arrested in DMP’s special anti-narcotics drive in 8 months He said the highest number of 2192 people were nabbed in January, while lowest 1333 people were arrested in April. The highest number of cases, 1532, was recorded in January, while the lowest came in April with 947 cases were filed at different police stations. READ: E-commerce firms like Evaly, E-orange to face action: DMP 

Police have recovered a huge cache of local handmade spear-like sharp weapons from the house of an Awami League (AL) leader in Pabna's Faridpur upazila. On a secret tip-off, police raided the house of Helal Talukder, former legal affairs secretary of upazila AL on Monday afternoon. During the raid 95 local weapons made with steel pipes were recovered from his Ratanpur village house in Pungali Union of the upazila. However, police could not arrest Helal and his companions as they managed to escape. Faridpur Police officer-in-charge (OC) Masud Rana said a team of police raided the house on the basis of information that Helal had a large quantity of weapons in his house. READ: 999 call: TCB goods recovered from AL leader’s house Sensing the presence of police, Helal Talukder and his associates fled by boat, he added A case was being filed in this regard and police were running operations to arrest them, OC Masud further said. Faridpur AL general secretary Ali Ashraful Kabir said, “Helal Talukder is the former legal affairs secretary of Upazila Awami League. I have heard about the recovery of weapons from his house.” READ: Anti-graft body approves charges against AL leader Enu and three others A decision about him will be taken after discussing it at the party meeting, he said.

Members of Rab are searching the residence of film actress Pori Moni at Banani in the city. The intelligence unit of Rab started the drive around 4 pm, sources at the elite force told UNB. READ: 'Rape attempt' on Pori Moni: Nasir, Omi get bail Meanwhile, Pori Moni went live on Facebook seeking help from the local administration and Banani police station after plainclothes Rab personnel reached her home. The actress alleged that an unidentified group of people entered her home and were knocking on the door of her flat. READ: Nasir, Omi put on 5-day remand over ‘rape attempt’ on Pori Moni

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) on Monday raided the office of Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (Desco) over an allegation of embezzling money through purchasing substandard prepaid electric metres.