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EAST JERUSALEM — Israeli forces said on Thursday they arrested nine Palestinians during overnight confrontations in East Jerusalem, with tensions surging in the city and across the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians launched a rare general strike on Wednesday in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, including closing shops, in response to a days-long operation by Israeli forces in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shuafat.

Israel is searching the camp for the suspected killer of 18-year-old Israeli soldier Noa Lazar last Saturday at a Shuafat checkpoint.

With the manhunt for the woman soldier's killer ongoing, Israeli forces said they had arrested nine Palestinians overnight who were "throwing stones and Molotov cocktails and attacking officers", raising to 23 the number of East Jerusalem residents detained since Wednesday.

Munib Al Qutob, an emergency worker, told AFP that there had been "lots of injuries from rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation".

A masked Palestinian in Shuafat, who asked that his name be withheld, told AFP that Israeli forces were “full of anger because they can’t capture” the 22-year-old Palestinian suspect in the killing of the soldier.

Israeli forces said the Issawiya and Silwan neighbourhoods of east Jerusalem also saw overnight clashes, with two officers slightly injured.

Israeli forces said Thursday that border police reservists were being called in to “maintain calm” in and around Jerusalem.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem following the 1967 Six-Day War, a move not recognised by most of the international community.

Clashes between security forces and Palestinians in the area are common.

Bloodshed has been spiralling, particularly in the northern West Bank, where Israeli forces are conducting near daily raids pursuing suspects they accuse of involvement in deadly attacks on Israelis.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, including fighters and civilians, in an escalation that began in March.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's new prime minister-designate Mohammed Shia Al Sudani hails from the Shiite Muslim political class that has been in power for almost two decades.

But, on top of the challenge of forming a government for the crisis-hit country, he must now win the backing of fiercely rival Shiite factions.

More than a year after general elections left Iraq in political paralysis, 52-year-old Sudani was nominated as prime minister by new President Abdul Latif Rashid, to succeed Mustafa Al Kadhemi, in power since 2020.

Sudani, an influential former lawmaker, governor and minister, has the backing of the influential pro-Iran factions of the Coordination Framework.

But he will face a major task ahead to earn the support of their rivals, the millions of diehard supporters of fiery cleric Moqtada Sadr.

Sudani, born in 1970, was just a nine-year-old boy when his father was executed for his opposition to Saddam Hussein.

After the US-led invasion in 2003, Sudani rose to prominence within the Shiite political leadership.

With a degree in agricultural science, he moved through the ranks of the civil service, becoming governor of Maysan, the oil-rich province bordering Iran.

In 2010, he launched his political career in the capital Baghdad, rising within the government of prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, becoming the minister of human rights, then social affairs, and then of industry.

‘Established political elite’

Today, it is with the key backing of Maliki and the pro-Tehran Coordination Framework that Sudani must forge a government.

Dressed in dark business suits, and sporting a bushy moustache with neatly close-cropped hair, the father-of-five set out on the campaign trail after the Coordination Framework put forward his name as candidate in July.

As he sought to win over opposition lawmakers, he has presented — as his predecessors did — ambitious programmes promising to tackle endemic corruption and rebuild crumbling infrastructure left in ruins by years of war.

When his name was floated in 2019 as a potential candidate for the premiership amid mass anti-government street protests denouncing the political elite, Sudani made little headway.

“He doesn’t have a bad history, and there is no huge corruption accusations against him,” said Sajad Jiyad, a researcher at the think tank Century International.

“But the fact that he is not known as a significant reformer, the fact that he is part of the established political elite, doesn’t give confidence that he could be any different from them.”

When he was named in July by the pro-Tehran Coordination Framework, furious Sadr supporters breached the Green Zone and stormed parliament in protest.

For Sadr, Sudani is seen as being “close” to his longtime foe Maliki, said Jiyad.

“For Sadrists, that is a problem,” he added. “They believe he [Sudani] is out to defeat the Sadrists politically... that if he gets the chance, he will crush the Sadrists.”

‘Potential popularity’ 

Sudani, having cut his teeth in the State of Law party of Maliki, founded his own party in 2021, Al-Furatain, with a total of three lawmakers in parliament.

“He’s a statesman,” said Bashar Al Saidi, the deputy secretary-general of his party. “He masters ministerial work... and knows how to manage political and administrative affairs.”

Among his priorities will be to “pass a budget”, “reduce poverty and unemployment”, and restore public services including health and electricity, said Saidi.

Also on his to-do list will be organising fresh elections.

Sudani, potentially to head off demands already made by Sadr for early elections, has said that a new vote should be held “within a year and a half”. He has called the Sadrists a “great popular and patriotic” movement.

Hamzeh Hadad, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank, spoke of his “potential popularity” with the public.

“He already has good relations with political parties across the spectrum, which is why initial calls against his candidacy were not particularly personal, but the circumstance of being the Coordination Framework’s nominee,” Hadad said.

Like Kadhemi, his predecessor as premier, Sudani represents “the next generation of Iraqi politicians” who came to power after the toppling to Saddam.

And, as premier with the backing of the Coordination Framework’s nominee, he will “be more empowered in office” than his two predecessors, viewed by some as “compromise candidates”, Hadad added.

BAGHDAD — Iraq's parliament will meet on Thursday to "elect the president", a press release from speaker Mohammed Al Halbussi's office said on Tuesday, after months of political impasse.

More than a year after the last general election in Iraq, Halbussi's office said Thursday's parliamentary session would have "a single item on the agenda, the election of the president of the Republic".

Iraqis last voted on October 10, 2021 in an election triggered by a wave of mass protests against endemic corruption, rampant unemployment and decaying infrastructure.

Ahead of Tuesday's surprise announcement, the United Nations mission had urged political factions to end the deadlock paralysing the oil-rich country, warning that "Iraq is running out of time".

The country has yet to form a new government after last year's election, leaving caretaker Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhemi in charge.

Rival Shiite Muslim factions in parliament have been vying for influence and the right to select a new premier and government.

The stand-off has seen both sides set up protest camps and at times has sparked deadly street clashes in Baghdad.

On August 30, current President Barham Saleh had urged “new, early elections in accordance with a national consensus”, saying these could provide “an exit from the stifling crisis”.

The largely honorific post of Iraqi president is traditionally reserved for a Kurd.

TUNIS — The bodies of eight migrants, thought to be Tunisians missing for two weeks, were recovered on Monday off the coast of the north African country, the Red Crescent said.

"Sailors on Monday morning found eight bodies of migrants off Zarzis whose boat was thought to have sunk two weeks ago," Mongi Slim, head of the Red Crescent in Medenine, told AFP.

He said DNA samples have been taken in an attempt to identify the victims.

Tunisia is only about 130 kilometres from Italy's Lampedusa island and has long been a launching pad for people fleeing violence and poverty across the African continent and seeking refuge in Europe.

Local media have reported that a makeshift boat carrying 18 migrants including a baby went missing 15 days ago.

Tunisian coastguards were continuing the search for survivors, the Red Crescent said.

Generally favourable weather from spring to early autumn sees a rise in illegal attempts to reach Italy from Tunisia and Libya, but such Mediterranean crossings often end in tragedy.

According to official figures, more than 22,500 migrants have been intercepted off the Tunisian coast since the start of the year, around half of them from sub-Saharan Africa.

Upwards of 500 people, mostly Tunisians, have been arrested on suspicion of people smuggling over the same period.

Tunisia is currently in the throes of an economic crisis, with an estimated 4 million out of its 12-million-strong population on the poverty line.

The authorities say the coastguard lacks the resources to halt the clandestine flow of migrants trying to reach Europe.

According to EU border agency Frontex, the central Mediterranean route was used by more than 42,500 migrants between January and July, an increase of 44 per cent compared with the first seven months of 2021.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Jerusalem church leaders on Monday expressed their "grave concern" about Britain potentially moving their embassy in Israel to the contested and sacred city.

British Prime Minister Liz Truss last month told her Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid "about her review of the current location of the British embassy in Israel", according to her office.

The announcement raised the prospect of London following in Washington's steps under former president Donald Trump, who in 2018 relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

The move broke with decades of international consensus, as governments have refused to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of either an Israeli or Palestinian state before a lasting peace accord is reached.

On Monday, Jerusalem church heads warned moving the British embassy "would severely undermine this key principle... and the political negotiations that it seeks to advance".

The Council of the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem represents all denominations in the city, which is home to the holiest site in Christianity.

The Old City, in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem, also hosts the most sacred site in Judaism and the third-holiest site in Islam.

“The religious Status Quo in Jerusalem is essential for preserving the harmony of our Holy City and good relations between religious communities around the globe,” said the church heads.

Britain’s review, they added, implied that there was no need for peace talks, and that “the continuing military occupation of those territories and the unilateral annexation of east Jerusalem are both acceptable”.

Israel has occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank — the site of numerous biblical tales including the birth of Jesus — since the 1967 June Day War.

Noting that Christians have lived in the territory “under many different empires and governments” for some 2,000 years, they pressed the British government to “redouble their diplomatic efforts” towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.

Their intervention from Jerusalem follows similar statements by church leaders in Britain.

A spokesperson for the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the senior bishop of the Anglican Church, last week told the UK website Jewish News he was “concerned about the potential impact of moving the British embassy” to Jerusalem.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the country’s most senior Catholic cleric, said on Thursday that relocating the embassy would “be seriously damaging to any possibility of lasting peace in the region”.

TAL ABYAD, Syria — A drone strike in northern Syria killed a suspected member of the Daesh on Monday, a war monitor and an AFP correspondent said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack that came days after US forces said they had targeted Daesh officials in Syria in a series of raids.

Two explosions hit near the Turkish-held border-town of Tal Abyad in northern Syria, residents and an AFP correspondent said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a drone strike had targeted a suspected member of the jihadist group.

The suspected terrorist was killed while on a motorbike, according to the monitor which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.

"I heard aircraft and then a first strike followed by a second one less than a minute later," resident Ismail Al Barho told AFP.

"I came to the site of the strikes and found a charred body," he said, adding that a civilian was also wounded.

Another resident identified the dead man as Ammar Al Yehya Ibn Ali, a 35-year-old Syrian who was known to have been a former member of Daesh.

The resident spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Monday’s strike came after the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried out a raid in northeast Syria on Thursday, targeting an Daesh official known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters.

In a later statement the same day, it said it had launched another air strike that killed two senior Daesh members.

Washington first deployed troops in northeast Syria in 2014 as part of a coalition to combat the Daesh group.

When they lost the last territory the controlled after a military onslaught backed by the US-led coalition in March 2019, the remnants of Daesh in Syria mostly retreated into desert hideouts.

They have since used these hideouts to ambush Kurdish-led forces and Syrian government troops, while also continuing to mount attacks in Iraq.

In July, the Pentagon said it had killed Syria’s top Daesh extremist in a drone strike in the north of the country.

CENTCOM said he had been “one of the top five” Daesh leaders.

July’s attack came five months after a nighttime US raid on the town of Atme, which led to the death of Daesh leader Abu Ibrahim Al Qurashi.

US officials said Qurashi, his wife and two children all died when he detonated a bomb to avoid capture.

NASIRIYAH, Iraq — Some 1,200 Iraqi families have been forced out of southern marshes and farmlands over the past six months, a local official told AFP, as drought ravages swathes of the country.

The Mesopotamian Marshes, a UNESCO World Heritage site, have been battered by low rainfall and reduced flows in the Tigris and Euphrates rivers due to dams built upstream in Turkey and Iran.

Oil-rich Iraq, battered by decades of war, is also the world’s fifth-most vulnerable country to some key effects of climate change, including water scarcity and desertification, say the United Nations.

Saleh Hadi, head of the agriculture authority in Dhi Qar province, said “about 1,200 families of buffalo herders and farmers in the marshes and other areas of the province were displaced from their homes do to water shortages”.

The mass exodus began in April, Hadi said, adding that more than 2,000 buffaloes had died as a result of the drought.

“Half of the families have moved closer to the river in areas of north of Nasiriyah,” the regional capital, he added, while others have relocated to central and southern provinces such as Babylon, Kut, Karbala and Basra.

According to Hadi, the Dhi Qar’s Chibayish marshes and the village of Manar in the Hammar marshes were hit particularly hard, but families have also left Umm Al Wadaa and farming lands in Sayyed Dakhil, Suk al-Shuyukh and Al Islah.

Iraq’s water resources minister last month said that 2022 has been “one of the driest years Iraq has seen since 1930”, citing three consecutive years of low precipitation and reduced river flow.

This summer, vast swathes of wetland in Hawizah, along the border with Iran, as well as in the touristic Chibayish region have dried up.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation noted in July “unprecedented low water levels” in the marshes, “one of the poorest regions in Iraq and one of the most affected by climate change”.

The agency underlined the “disastrous impact” on more than 6,000 families living in that area who “are losing their buffaloes, their unique living asset”.