Month: February 2023

Explosions and gunfire sounded as troops entered the old city of Nablus on Wednesday morning, sparking armed clashes with Palestinian gunmen.

The Israeli military said it killed three wanted militants holed up inside a house who refused to surrender.

Several of those killed outside were civilians, including two elderly men.

The Palestinian health ministry said 72-year-old Adnan Saabe Baara was one of them. Video footage purportedly showed his body in a street next to bags of bread, in what is usually a busy market area.

A 61-year-old man, Abdul Hadi Ashqar, and a 16-year-old boy, Mohammad Shaaban, were also shot dead, the ministry said.

Another elderly man, Anan Shawkat Annab, 66, who suffered from tear-gas inhalation, died in hospital on Wednesday evening.

Six members of the Lions’ Den and other militant groups were killed during the raid, the Lions’ Den said in a Telegram post.

The number of dead is one more than that of an Israeli military raid last month in Jenin, which was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2005.

What makes this raid even more significant is the huge numbers wounded, with the Palestinian health ministry saying more than 80 people have suffered bullet wounds. Five different hospitals in Nablus are currently treating them.

Senior Palestinian official Hussein al-Sheikh condemned what he described as a “massacre”, while a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he held Israel’s government responsible for “this dangerous escalation, which is pushing the region toward tension and an explosion”.

The militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, warned that it was “monitoring the escalating crimes conducted by the enemy against our people in the occupied West Bank and is running out of patience”.

The raid lasted four hours and took place in the middle of morning, when the narrow streets of the old city are often packed with families and people shopping.

Resident Khalil Shaheen described hearing an explosion, which woke him up.

“I looked out the window and saw special forces with dogs, and they were connecting wires, which I assume are for TNT [explosives], God knows,” he said.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it “upgraded” its operation after forces were shot at by Palestinian gunmen. Its troops fired shoulder-launched missiles at the building where the wanted militants were hiding, which caused it to partially collapse.

It said it acted when it did because it had real-time information – thought to be a geolocated Facebook post – on the location of one of the militants.

“We saw the threat and we had to go in and finish the work,” IDF spokesman Lt Col Richard Hecht said in a briefing to reporters.

But Palestinian videos posted on social media also show young men in the street, who appear unarmed, apparently being fired at while running away, with one falling to the ground as gunshots are heard. The IDF described the footage as “problematic” and said it was being reviewed.

Two of the militants in the encircled building were Muhammad Junaidi, a commander in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and another senior militant figure, Hussam Isleem.

The IDF said they and the third militant, Walid Dkhail, were suspected of carrying out previous shooting attacks, including one in the West Bank last October that killed an Israeli soldier, and of planning more attacks in the near future. Two other suspects were arrested in Nablus last week.

During the raid, Isleem recorded a WhatsApp audio message that was shared on social media, saying: “We’re in trouble, but we won’t surrender ourselves. We won’t hand over our weapons. I’ll die as a martyr. Keep carrying weapons after us.”

Isleem’s house had been raided by Israeli forces earlier this month and his family interrogated. His father told Palestinian media afterwards that forces told him his son should hand himself in or he would be killed.

Both Isleem and Junaidi were active in the Lions’ Den – a new militant group that emerged in Nablus over the last year amid a collapse in control by the official Palestinian Authority security forces.

As with a similar group in the nearby city of Jenin, the young gunmen used TikTok and Telegram to spread a message of armed resistance against the Israeli occupation to a new generation of Palestinians.

Israel has targeted parts of both cities in waves of search, arrest and intelligence-gathering raids, saying it is trying to stem the spate of deadly attacks against Israelis.

So far this year, more than 60 Palestinians – including militants and civilians – have been killed, while 11 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis.

Wednesday’s deadly raid in Nablus is a further sign that recent attempts led by the US to ease tensions are failing.

This week, the Palestinian Authority abandoned its push for a vote at the UN Security Council on a resolution which would have censured Israel’s new nationalist government over its plans to expand Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

As part of an apparent understanding, Israel then said it would not announce new settlements in the coming months. According to sources quoted in the Israeli media, Israel was also to lower the intensity of its raids into Palestinian cities.

The call lasted about half an hour and focused on the trade impacts of the protocol.

The prime minister was described as being across the “granular detail” of the issues that matter to business.

Mr Sunak made it clear a deal would provide “certainty, stability and clarity” for businesses, a Downing Street statement said.

BBC News NI understands that during Wednesday’s call with businesses, Mr Sunak was told any new deal needed to balance the free flow of goods from Great Britain with the single market access afforded to Northern Ireland producers by the protocol.

The Northern Ireland Protocol aims to ensure free movement of goods across the Irish land border by conducting checks between Northern Ireland and Great Britain instead.

Unionist parties oppose the current rules and argue that placing an effective border across the Irish Sea undermines Northern Ireland’s place within the UK.

Negotiations to resolve issues with the treaty have been going on for more than a year.

Roger Pollen, from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), who was on the call, said there was no sense of when a deal might be concluded, but described the mood as “encouraging”.

“It was pragmatic, it was useful,” he told BBC Radio Ulster’s Evening Extra programme.

“I wouldn’t say I came away with any sense of what the timescale is on an outcome to it, but it was encouraging that this level of intensity is being focused on resolving the problems so many people have highlighted.”

He added: “There’s reasons to be hopeful, but whether there’s reasons to be hopeful quickly, that’s another question.”

Stephen Kelly, chief executive of Manufacturing NI, said that, while details of a deal were not discussed, Mr Sunak was “not only fully engaged but had an intimate understanding of the issues” and was “committed to finding agreement with the EU”.

Nichola Mallon, from Logistics UK, said the prime minster was pressed on the need for solutions that “protect Northern Ireland consumers and work for all sectors”.

She said: “It is the logistics industry that ensures goods can be moved across sectors, something that was very much recognised by the prime minister, who referred to the logistics sector as the ‘arteries’ that keep goods flowing.”

The video call came as the Mr Sunak faced questions at Westminster on what a potential deal with the EU could look like.

During Prime Ministers Questions on Wednesday, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer challenged him over whether Northern Ireland would still be subject to some EU laws.

Mr Sunak said “intensive discussions” with the EU were ongoing.

The prime minister also refused to confirm whether, if a deal was secured, he would drop the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.

The legislation, which is currently paused in Parliament, would give the government powers to unilaterally scrap parts of the treaty and has been a source of tension with the EU.

Following the video call, a Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister outlined that any deal needed to safeguard Northern Ireland’s place within the union, protect the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement in all its dimensions, fix the practical problems on the ground and ensure the smooth flow of goods within the UK internal market.

“As intensive negotiations with the EU continue, the prime minister used the meeting to hear directly from the business community on the critical issues that must be fixed.”

The current rules, known as the Northern Ireland Protocol, were negotiated by Boris Johnson and came into force in 2021.

They introduced checks on goods sent from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, to get round the need for checks at the UK’s border with the Republic of Ireland.

The rules have proved highly unpopular among unionists in Northern Ireland, and soured relations between the UK and EU.

In protest at the rules, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Northern Ireland’s second largest political party, boycotted power-sharing in Northern Ireland, meaning it has been without a functioning devolved government since February of last year.

A majority of members of the Stormont assembly are in favour of the protocol in some form remaining in place.

Sinn Féin, the Alliance Party and the SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour Party) have said improvements to the protocol are needed to ease its implementation.

British and European negotiators have been locked in talks for more than a year to secure changes that will satisfy business groups and politicians.

The goal is one of five “missions” the Labour leader will put at the centre of his party’s offer to voters at the next election.

The others, to be unveiled at a speech on Thursday, include making Britain a “clean energy superpower” and cutting health inequalities.

It comes after Rishi Sunak set out five pledges of his own last month.

Labour says the missions set out by Sir Keir will shape its next election manifesto, and guide the party if it forms the next government.

In his address, to be delivered in Manchester, he will say that “new thinking” will be required to tackle the “root causes” of the UK’s problems.

Labour has specified “measurable outcomes” for its missions to boost the economy and make Britain a “superpower” for green energy.

These are securing the “highest sustained growth” in the G7 group of rich nations, made up of the UK, US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan.

The target for clean energy includes the party’s already-announced goal of generating all of Britain’s electricity without fossil fuels by 2030.

The party says targets for the other three missions – improving the NHS, reforming the justice system, and raising education standards – will be set out in the coming months.

Sir Keir will say the goals will help Labour deliver “mission-driven government” that is better able to tackle long-term issues.

In a continuation of his bid to broaden the party’s appeal to voters, he will say his approach to the economy would be neither “state control” nor “pure free markets”.

The new missions are the latest attempt by a party leader to encapsulate their goals in the mind of voters ahead of the next general election, which is expected next year.

It also echoes the five-point pledge card first issued by New Labour ahead of the 1997 election, to set out its stall on battleground issues. Ed Miliband also set out five pledges ahead of the 2015 election.

At his new year speech last month, Mr Sunak set out his own five goals for his premiership, which also included growing the economy.

He also promised to halve inflation this year, ensure the UK’s debt is falling, cut NHS waiting lists, and pass new laws to stop small boat crossings.

Speaking shortly after the incident in November 2021, the pilot known as Hux said he only had seconds to react.

An official investigation concluded the sudden loss of power on take off was probably caused by a cover being left on one of the aircraft’s jet intakes.

His story is included in a BBC series called The Warship: Tour of Duty.

The documentary also reveals how the Royal Navy’s HMS Queen Elizabeth ship was harassed by Russian aircraft and how it played a risky game of hide-and-seek with the Chinese Navy.

The Royal Navy pilot spoke to the film-makers shortly after he was rescued and was still suffering from cuts and bruises caused by the high-speed ejection.

He describes how the jet suddenly lost acceleration: “I tried for emergency power – that didn’t work, then I tried to slap on the brakes – that didn’t work either… so I kind of knew it was going to roll off the ship.”

Hux’s life was saved by his ejector seat – which he describes as the most advanced in the world. That and extremely good luck.

As his parachute activated, he says he saw the sea beneath him “and then a second later I could see the flight deck of the ship starting to appear beneath me”.

He just managed to make it on to the deck – by a few feet – before being pulled to safety. If he had not landed on the carrier, he risked being dragged under the 65,000-tonne warship.

Leaked video from the ship’s on-board camera showed the moment the F-35 fell into the sea.

An official investigation concluded that the sudden loss of power was probably caused by a blockage – a cover mistakenly left on a jet intake.

The aircraft – the most advanced stealth fighter in the world which is operated jointly in the UK by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force – was later recovered from the sea bed to ensure it did not fall into the wrong hands.

Chris Terrill, who filmed the documentary, said the F-35 crash was “a shock to everyone”, but said the response of the ship’s company was “as immediate as it was extraordinary”.

“An aircraft might have been lost but there was a pilot, a shipmate, who had to be saved,” he said.

“Training kicked in but there was an extra energy and urgency to the sailors’ execution of their emergency procedures. It was terrifying but inspiring to see.”

The six-part series follows HMS Queen Elizabeth’s eight-month, 49,000-nautical mile voyage to the Pacific Ocean and back last year.

It shows how the carrier was harried by missile-armed Russian aircraft in the eastern Mediterranean. F-35 jets are seen intercepting them to stop them getting too close to the carrier.

The documentary describes it as one step down from real combat. In the operations room a warfare officer suggests putting the Russian aircraft in their sights for a “theoretical kill” to warn them away.

F-35s are also put on standby when another ship from the carrier strike group, HMS Defender, has an even closer encounter with the Russians while sailing in the Black Sea.

In the South China Sea, HMS Queen Elizabeth engages in a game of cat and mouse with the Chinese Navy.

A Royal Navy frigate and helicopters try to find a Chinese submarine before it is able to get close enough to take a photograph from its periscope.

It is the kind of image that could be used for propaganda purposes – showing how easy it would be to target a large ship. But the submarine is successfully located using sonar before it gets too close.

Warship also tells the story of life on board during one of the Royal Navy’s longest deployments during the Covid pandemic, where at the height of the outbreak about 400 sailors – more than a quarter of the crew – were in isolation with either confirmed or suspected infections.