Region

SILAT AL-HARITHIYA, Palestinian Territories — Israeli forces on Saturday destroyed the home of a Palestinian accused of killing an Israeli settler last year, sparking clashes.

Explosives destroyed the apartment of Omar Jaradat in Silat Al-Harithiya village, near the flashpoint town of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, according to a statement by the Israeli forces.

It said Palestinians confronted with Israeli occupation forces, throwing stones and firebombs, which soldiers responded to with semi-automatic fire.

Two Palestinians were wounded, according to an AFP photographer at the scene.

The confrontations add to tensions in Israel and the West Bank as a large-scale manhunt continued for a pair of Palestinians suspected of killing three Israelis in an axe attack Thursday night near Tel Aviv.

Over the past month the Israeli forces and Palestinians have also confronted at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Israeli-occuped Old City.

Explosives punched a hole in the pink exterior wall of Jaradat’s apartment and blew out interior walls, leaving the floors strewn with grey rubble.

Israel accused Jaradat and two of his family members of killing religious student Yehuda Dimentman, 25, on December 16, 2021. Gunmen sprayed a car with bullets as it drove out of the wildcat settlement outpost of Homesh. Two others were wounded in the attack.

Israeli forces have previously demolished three other homes of Jaradat family members in Silat Al Harithiya.

Those operations in February and March also led to confrontations, in which the Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian teenager.

Israel regularly destroys the homes of individuals it blames for attacks on Israelis.

The practice has been condemned by critics as a form of collective punishment. Israel insists it deters attacks.

Around 475,000 Jewish settlers live in the West Bank in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law, alongside around 2.9 million Palestinians,

A total of 27 Palestinians and three Arab Israelis have died during the same period, among them perpetrators of attacks and those killed by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank operations.

Beirut — Lebanese expatriates on Friday voted in parliamentary polls, kickstarting a critical election that comes amid an unprecedented financial crisis that has spurred a mass population exodus.

While opposition figures have pinned their hopes on the diaspora, experts said the elections were expected to uphold the status quo, despite years of economic meltdown.

Expatriates in nine Arab countries and in Iran cast their votes on Friday, with Syria and Tehran seeing the highest turnout rates, according to Foreign Affairs Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

Bou Habib said nearly 60 per cent of the 30,930 voters registered overseas had cast a ballot, a jump from 56 per cent in 2018.

The foreign minister had expressed hope for 70 per cent participation earlier Friday but the final count announced after ballots closed was estimated at 18,225 votes.

Expatriates in 48 other countries will vote on Sunday.

On Saturday morning, two boxes carrying expat votes arrived at the Beirut airport from Tehran, escorted by Lebanon's envoy to the Islamic Republic, the official National News Agency reported.

All other ballots will be delivered to Lebanon by logistics giant DHL, with the exception of those from neighbouring Syria which will be handed over across the border, Bou Habib said.

'Vote in large numbers' 

It is the second time in Lebanon's history that citizens residing abroad are able to vote for their 128 representatives, in elections set to be held at home on May 15.

The vote is the first since mass protests erupted in late 2019 against the country's entrenched ruling elite, widely blamed for the economic collapse.

Bou Habib had said that Lebanese based abroad would be able to vote in more than 205 polling stations worldwide.

The number of Lebanese who have registered to vote abroad has climbed from the roughly 92,000 in 2018 elections, though only 50,000 of them voted at the time.

But voter registration, while on the rise, remains relatively low among the millions of Lebanese who live abroad, and their descendants.

The economic crisis has pushed middle-class Lebanese, including families, fresh graduates, doctors and nurses to emigrate in search of a better future.

While opposition groups hope the diaspora will vote for change, only 6 per cent of overseas voters picked independents in 2018, according to a recent report by the Paris-based Arab Reform Initiative.

Candidates from the traditional parties have sent messages to many expatriates in recent weeks to appeal for their vote.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Najib Mikati called for voters registered abroad “not to be complacent and to vote in large numbers”.

Although many Lebanese hope they can vote traditional parties out, experts said this was unlikely as opposition candidates lacked unity, funds and experience.

In January, former prime minister Saad Hariri said he would quit politics and that his party would boycott the polls, leaving his Sunni community leaderless ahead of the elections.

Less prominent Sunni figures, including some politicians from his own party running as independents, are looking to reclaim Hariri’s influence and snatch a seat in parliament.

DOHA — Thousands of migrant labourers, many of whom have worked on Qatar’s new stadiums, have formed long queues to see the World Cup trophy that will be contested in the Gulf state this year.

The price of tickets means that most of those who waited up to two hours for the chance of a selfie next to the gold trophy will not see the games that start November 21.

South Asia has contributed the biggest contingent to the army of labourers that built seven new stadiums and refurbished an eighth for the first World Cup in an Arab country.

For the latest stage of its final display in Qatar before the tournament, the trophy was set up in a car park near Doha’s main cricket stadium in Asian Town.

Each person had about 15 seconds on Friday to snap a picture with the cup that is currently held by France. A Bangladeshi pop group and Indian drummers entertained the waiting hordes.

Azam Rashid, a carpenter who worked on two stadiums, said he was among the many workers who could not afford tickets but was intrigued by the cup.

“The tickets may be too expensive, but Qatar and the World Cup has given me an opportunity,” he said.

“There are long lines, but it will be worth it to see the trophy,” he said.

Some tickets costing 40 riyals ($11) have been reserved for Qatar’s 2.8 million population, most of whom are foreign workers.

Many in the line told AFP, however, that all the cheap tickets had gone and the cost of others was out of range for the mainly male workers earning Qatar’s minimum wage of $275 a month.

“The World Cup is exciting but it is definitely too much for me,” said an administrative worker who gave his name as Tarir.

Another expat, Nasim, said he was more fortunate and obtained some $10 tickets. “Everyone can afford the price I paid,” he said.

But Ahmed Kareem, a construction labourer who said he had been in Qatar for a decade, predicted that most migrants would only watch matches on TV.

“This trophy is a big event for us. It is the closest that most of us will get to the World Cup,” he said.

MOSUL, Iraq — Dozens of faithful celebrated mass Saturday at a Mosul church in northern Iraq for the first time since it was restored after its ransacking by the Daesh terror group. 

Daesh swept into Mosul and proclaimed it their "capital" in 2014, in an onslaught that forced hundreds of thousands of Christians in the northern Nineveh province to flee, some to Iraq's nearby Kurdistan region.

The Iraqi army drove out the extremists three years later after months of gruelling street fighting that devastated the city.

The Mar Tuma Syriac Catholic church, which dates back to the 19th century, was used by the terrorists as a prison or a court.

Restoration work is ongoing and its marble floor has been dismantled to be completely redone.

In September 2021, a new bell was inaugurated at the church during a ceremony attended by dozens of worshippers.

The 285-kilogramme bell cast in Lebanon rang out on Saturday to cries of joy before the mass got underway, an AFP correspondent said.

The service began with worshippers who packed the church chanting hymns as an organist played.

“This is the most beautiful church in Iraq,” said Father Pios Affas, 82, the delighted parish priest.

Affas also paid tribute to those behind the restoration work which, he said, had “brought the church back to its past glory, like the way it was 160 years ago”.

Inside the church, ochre and grey marble shone in the nave, where the altar and colonnaded arches were restored and new stained glass installed.

Extremists had destroyed all Christian symbols, including the holy cross, and parts of the church were damaged by fire and shelling.

Artisans worked diligently to “clean the scorched marble” and restore it, Fraternity in Iraq, a French NGO that aids religious minorities, which helped fund the restoration work said earlier this year.

Outbuildings and rooms on the first floor, where windows have been broken and Daesh graffiti can be seen, are still due to be repaired.

Mosul and the surrounding plains of Nineveh were once home to one of the region’s oldest Christian communities.

Iraq’s Christian population has shrunk to fewer than 400,000 from around 1.5 million before the US-led invasion of 2003 that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein.

Nineveh province was left in ruins after three years of extremist occupation which ended in 2017 when Iraqi forces backed by US-led coalition air strikes pushed them out.

Several monasteries and churches are being renovated but reconstruction is slow, and the Christian population that has fled has not returned.

Pope Francis made a historic visit to the region last year.

ALGIERS — One of Algeria’s leading opposition figures, Karim Tabbou, remained in custody on Saturday for unknown reasons, his brother and rights activists said.

Tabbou was one of the most-recognisable faces during unprecedented mass rallies, led by the Hirak pro-democracy movement, that began in February 2019. They demanded a sweeping overhaul of the ruling system in place since the North African country’s independence from France in 1962.

He was detained Friday evening at his home, rights groups said.

“Until now my brother Karim Tabbou has not been freed,” his brother Djaffar wrote on Facebook. “He was arrested arbitrarily and in a terrifying way, without being given the right to contact his family or a lawyer.”

Algeria’s Human Rights League (LADDH) said on its Facebook page that Tabbou had not been released and there is “no news on the reasons for this new arrest”.

Tabbou, 47, had been detained but then released on other occasions, including just before last June’s parliamentary election which Hirak boycotted.

His last public activity was on Thursday when he attended the funeral of Hirak militant Hakim Debbazi.

On Tuesday Tabbou published on his Facebook page a “homage” to Debbazi, who died after two months in custody.

“Physically dead, the martyrs of the just causes are more than alive,” Tabbou wrote.

He blamed authorities for the death of “modest and humble” Debbazi and said the activist had been “committed body and sole to the Hirak”.

Tabbou called on people to honour Debbazi’s “sacrifice” and “continue our fight for the advent of a state of law”.

Tabbou leads a small, unregistered opposition party, the Democratic Social Union.

In March 2020, he was sentenced to one-year in jail for “undermining national security”. The conviction stemmed from his criticism of the army’s involvement in politics.

The Hirak protests forced longtime president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to step down. Demonstrations continued in a push for deep reforms but the movement waned when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Around 300 people are detained in Algeria over links to the Hirak or rights activism, the National Committee for the Release of Detainees says.

TEHRAN — Thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Friday to join annual pro-Palestinian rallies, as Israeli-Palestinian clashes in Jerusalem left dozens injured.

The Quds (Jerusalem) Day commemorations, which are held on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, were launched in 1979 by Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Across Iran, flag-waving protesters chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel”, the state broadcaster IRIB reported.

They also held up signs reading “Jerusalem is ours” and “Quds Day is the day of Islam”, it said, noting that rallies took place in the capital Tehran and several Iranian cities.

In Tehran, ballistic missiles were on display and protesters torched Israeli flags.

Iran does not recognise its arch-foe Israel and supporting the Palestinian cause has been a pillar of its foreign policy since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also marked the day by making live televised remarks in Arabic addressed to the Palestinian people.

“The Islamic republic of Iran backs and supports the Palestinian resistance... and we condemn the treacherous move to normalise relations [with Israel],” he said.

In 2020, the UAE, Bahrain and Morocco normalised ties with Israel through different deals.

Khamenei also slammed those in the West backing Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

“They are making so much noise about the situation in Ukraine... [and] are keeping totally silent about the crimes in Palestine”.

The rallies, that were held after a two-year pause due to Covid restrictions, took place against the backdrop of deadly violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank, and fierce clashes in Jerusalem.

On Friday, new clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police at Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound injured 42 people, the Palestinian Red Crescent said.

The fighting has sparked fears of another conflict after last year’s 11-day war between Israel and armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

Over the past two weeks, nearly 300 Palestinians have been injured in clashes at the Al Aqsa compound, Islam’s third-holiest site. It is also Judaism’s holiest place and known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The unrest came as Israeli security forces have stepped up operations in the West Bank since March 22.

The violence has killed 12 Israelis, including an Arab-Israeli police officer, and two Ukrainians in four separate attacks inside Israel.

A total of 26 Palestinians and three Israeli Arabs have also died since March 22, among them the perpetrators of the attacks and those killed by Israeli security forces in West Bank operations.

Palestinians have been angered by an uptick in Jewish visits to the Al Aqsa compound, where Jews can go but are not allowed to pray.