International
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Israeli-forces-detain-28-Palestinians-in-West-Bank-raids.jpg)
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
The Israeli military has arrested 28 Palestinians in a series of raids across the occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian rights group.
The overnight raids, part of Israel’s increasingly violent assault on the occupied territories, targeted the governorates of Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah and el-Bireh, Nablus and Jerusalem, said the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society on Thursday.
Israeli forces had doled out “severe beatings” and made threats against detainees’ families, said the group, which keeps a daily tally of arrests.
Violence in the West Bank, already on the rise before Israel’s current war on Gaza erupted in October, has since escalated with frequent army raids on Palestinian groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and deadly Palestinian street attacks.
Reporting from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the Israeli military had “dramatically” increased its operations, conducting about 38 raids a day, with an uptick in detentions. Home demolitions have gone up by 25 percent since last year, displacing more than 1,000 Palestinians.
In Jenin, where nine Palestinians were arrested, armed confrontations broke out in the city and its refugee camp in the early hours of Thursday.
READ ALSO:
- Palestinians in Lebanon ready to fight if Israel starts war with Hezbollah
- Biden struggles during heated debate with Trump ahead the 2024 US presidential election
- President Tinubu exposes Nigeria’s big thieves
Palestinian media said Israeli forces had raided a pharmacy near Jenin Government Hospital, on the outskirts of Jenin refugee camp, transferring detainees to an unknown destination.
A resident said Israeli bulldozers destroyed infrastructure inside the camp and in the city of Jenin.
During the raid, Palestinian fighters attacked Israeli armoured vehicles with explosive devices, killing one soldier and wounding 16.
“There were two explosions. The first one caused injuries. The second, that’s where the death happened,” said Odeh.
“According to preliminary Israeli investigations, the devices were buried or located a metre and a half into the ground, so deeper than the Israeli military vehicles usually dig to be able to find those improvised devices,” she said.
The Israeli military confirmed the death. The soldier “fell during operational activity in the area of Jenin”, it said in a statement.
Meanwhile, the Wafa news agency reported that four Palestinians were arrested in an overnight swoop on Hebron.
Israeli forces had stormed the town of Yatta, south of the city of Hebron, arresting three people, including a female university student. Another man was arrested in the town of Dura, southwest of Hebron.
The Israeli military also arrested a man after shooting him in the foot in the Qalandiya refugee camp, while another man was taken into custody in Deir Ghassana village, northwest of Ramallah.
Since October 7, Israel has carried out a total of 9,430 arrests in the West Bank in near daily raids.
The United Nations’ human rights chief Volker Turk warned this month that the situation in the West Bank was “dramatically deteriorating”, saying earlier that people there were being “subjected to day after day of unprecedented bloodshed”.
Israeli forces arrest 28 Palestinians in raids in occupied West Bank
International
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/After-the-crew-and-passengers-had-disembarked-the-aircraft-was-destroyed-on-the-runway.jpg)
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
READ ALSO:
- BREAKING: Pilot survives as NAF helicopter crashes in Kaduna
- UK cab driver confesses still getting paid in Nigeria as civil servant
- Police rescue 2 kidnapped victims in Abuja
The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
Passengers and crew held hostage after a 1990 British Airways flight landed are suing the airline and the UK government for “deliberately endangering” them.
They claim BA and the government knew Iraq had invaded Kuwait before the plane they were travelling on landed in the country.
The 367 passengers and crew of BA Flight 149 were taken hostage, and some were mistreated, seriously sexually assaulted and kept in near-starvation conditions.
The claimants believe those on board were put at risk so an intelligence-gathering mission could take place, an allegation which has been denied for 30 years.
Ninety-four people, either passengers or crew on board Flight 149 or BA crew already in Kuwait awaiting deployment, are behind the civil action alleging the UK government and BA were guilty of negligence and joint misfeasance in public office.
It is the latest step in a long battle to get answers as to what happened during Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
On the evening of 1 August 1990, BA Flight 149 took off from London’s Heathrow Airport with a planned stop in Kuwait on its way to Malaysia.
Iraqi troops were already massing on the border with Kuwait ahead of an invasion of the country that night. But the flight was not diverted from stopping in Kuwait.
The claimants say no other airline allowed its planes to land after the invasion began. By the time Flight 149 landed on the morning of 2 August, there was rocket fire near the airport as Iraqi forces took control.
READ ALSO:
- Gunmen abduct 20 travellers along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode expressway
- Saudi club Al-Ittihad woo Ademola Lookman with €11m salary
- Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
The plane was evacuated and unable to take off. Those on board were taken hostage.
Some were released quickly, but others suffered mistreatment and were used by Iraq as human shields at key facilities to try to prevent Western forces bombing them.
At the centre of the claim is the allegation the UK government and BA received a series of warnings during the night but did not act on them.
It is alleged that one reason for this was the desire of the government to insert a special forces team who could carry out reconnaissance within the country.
Stephen Davis wrote a book about the incident and says he has interviewed members of the team anonymously.
He believes the authorities did not expect the airport to fall to invading Iraqi forces so quickly and the intention was for the men to disembark before the plane went on to its next destination.
The BA cabin services director on the flight previously told the BBC that a British man in military uniform greeted him at the plane’s door on arrival in Kuwait.
The man said he had come to meet 10 men on the flight who had boarded at Heathrow. They were brought to the front, disembarked and were never seen again. But by then, it was too late for the plane to leave.
A UK official serving in the Kuwait embassy at the time previously said he believed there had been a “deniable” operation to hastily put boots on the ground without the full knowledge of the embassy.
Anthony Paice was responsible for political intelligence, a role widely assumed to be cover for MI6.
“I am convinced that the military intelligence exploitation of British Airways Flight 149 did take place, despite repeated official denials,” he told the BBC in his first interview in 2021.
In November 2021, the Foreign Office admitted that Parliament and the public were misled for decades about Flight 149.
Newly released files revealed the British ambassador in Kuwait did warn the Foreign Office about the invasion, but BA was not told.
However, then-Foreign Secretary Liz Truss reiterated earlier denials that the flight was being used for a secret intelligence mission.
“There must be closure and accountability to erase this shameful stain on the UK’s conscience,” said Matthew Jury, from the law firm behind the claim, McCue Jury and Partners.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson said the government did not comment on ongoing legal matters. BA did not respond to a request for comment.
Kuwait flight hostages sue British Airways, UK govt
BBC
International
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Six-Palestinians-killed-as-Israeli-forces-pound-southern-and-northern-Gaza.jpg)
Six Palestinians killed as Israeli forces pound southern, northern Gaza
At least six Palestinians have been killed in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and several homes have been destroyed as Israeli forces pushed deeper into the city and pressed further into Shujayea in northern Gaza.
Israeli tanks, which re-entered Shujayea four days ago, fired shells towards several houses, leaving families trapped inside and unable to leave, residents said.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that “60,000 to 80,000 people were displaced” from Shujayea in recent days.
For those who remain, “our lives have become hell”, said 50-year-old resident Siham al-Shawa.
She told the AFP news agency that people were trapped as strikes could happen “anywhere” and “it is difficult to get out of the neighbourhood under fire”.
“We do not know where to go to protect ourselves,” she said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Deir el-Balah, said residents who managed to flee the neighbourhood say the scale of destruction is “massive”.
International
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
![](https://newstrends.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/One-killed-five-injured-in-France-wedding-attack.jpg)
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
One person was killed and five others sustained gunshot wounds in northeastern France when several masked gunmen opened fire at a wedding ceremony, police sources said on Sunday.
According to sources, the incident in the northeastern city of Thionville was the result of a drug trafficking dispute.
According to an AFP report, the shooting took place overnight, from Saturday to Sunday, in a reception hall with approximately 100 individuals present.
Two people were gravely injured, and one was in critical condition.
The perpetrators of the shooting, however, fled the scene.
READ ALSO:
- Auto assemblers seek N100bn intervention fund for vehicle acquisition
- Rain wreaks havoc in Yobe, 3 dead, 50 houses destroyed
- Ondo, Ekiti face two months of power outage
“It was during a wedding,” a police source said.
“At a quarter past one in the morning, a group of people went outside to smoke in front of the hall, and then three heavily armed men arrived and opened fire in their direction.”
According to the informant, the intruders arrived in a 4×4 vehicle, “probably a BMW.” It was unclear where the vehicle had come from.
Thionville is located near the borders of Luxembourg and Germany. Law enforcement officials suspect that the violence was motivated by a desire to settle scores related to narcotics trafficking.
“The wedding was not targeted as such; it was people who were at the wedding,” a source told me.
On Sunday morning, a bullet-pierced glass door was seen at the scene. In the nearby village of Villerupt, five individuals were injured in May 2023 during shootings between rival gangs at a drug distribution site.
One killed, five injured in France wedding attack
-
Aviation1 day ago
Customs ground bank’s jet over unpaid import duty
-
Politics2 days ago
El-Rufai, Kwankwaso meeting reinforces northerners move against Tinubu – Report
-
metro3 days ago
Hisbah confiscates 142 cartons of alcohol heading to Buhari’s local govt
-
News2 days ago
Running four national budgets concurrently, reckless, recipe for chaos, Obi tackles FG
-
metro1 day ago
BREAKING: Pilot survives as NAF helicopter crashes in Kaduna
-
metro1 day ago
Gunmen abduct 20 travellers along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode expressway
-
News2 days ago
Release Nnamdi Kanu now, Peter Obi urges FG
-
metro3 days ago
Anambra couple arrested for starving their five underage boys