Israel’s new settlement expansion plan undermines two-state solution

The US State Department on Friday condemned Israel’s decision to expand the boundary of an existing West Bank settlement bloc, saying it hinders attempts to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces demolished on Saturday the home of a Palestinian young man, Mohanad Halabi, in Surda, a town near Ramallah.

Shockingly, he is recorded on camera telling an undercover investigator that Palestinian special forces will “catch these guys and kill them” after he hands over the details.

Israel has been facing a wave of violence since early September, with dozens of mutual attacks between Palestinians and Israelis.

This week’s protest marks the 51th anniversary of the establishment of Fatah movement, and the fifth anniversary of the death of Jawaher Abu Rahma, who suffocated to death in a nonviolent protest after Israeli soldiers fired dozens of gas bombs.

Speaking by telephone, an Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that both suspects were killed near the Jewish-only settlement of Bekaot, adding: “Israeli forces thwarted the attack and shot them”.

Police said Melhem, 29, was the gunman who killed two Israelis at a bar, then the Israeli Arab driver of a taxi who picked him up after the attack.

Controversial human rights activist Ezra Nawi, who was central to the collapse of Mr Norris’s presidential campaign, was secretly recorded posing as a Jew seeking to buy land from Palestinians with the aim of gathering information for Palestinian counter-intelligence agencies. Last year, the association declined to put two resolutions critical of Israel to a vote.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in November vowed to expedite house demolitions in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which he said were “one of the most efficient tools” in discouraging Palestinian attacks.

All four were due to be buried later on Saturday in the village of Sair, close to Hebron, according to Palestinian sources.