Revealed: Private jet owned by Trump friend used by ICE to deport Palestinians to West Bank

 Exclusive: Luxury aircraft owned by property tycoon close to US president’s family has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv

On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.

Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.

A Guardian investigation has established the flight was part of a secretive and politically sensitive US government operation to deport Palestinians arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

One of those deported on the January flight was Maher Awad, a 24-year-old originally from the West Bank, who had lived in the US for nearly a decade. Speaking to the Guardian in the town of Rammun, Maher shared photos of his girlfriend and newborn son in Michigan.

Occupied West Bank raids: Two Palestinians killed in Jenin by Israeli military

Israeli soldiers have been filmed shooting two Palestinians who were seen on their knees with their hands in the air. The men were shot dead during Israeli raids in Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army says it’s investigating the incident.

Israeli violence in the West Bank is spiraling

Violence is out of control in the West Bank – and the few covering it are being assaulted.

In the West Bank, record levels of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians are unfolding with little mainstream coverage. The few journalists who try to report on it often face attacks themselves.

When the violence is covered, the settlers are often framed as fringe actors, despite clear backing from the Israeli state. A de facto annexation is under way in the West Bank, and yet much of the international media continues to look away.

US backs Israel's ban on Unrwa Gaza aid in international court of justice hearing

 

Joshua Simmons, the US state department's legal adviser, has said Israel 'has no obligation to permit Unrwa specifically to provide humanitarian assistance', adding that there are serious concerns about the impartiality of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Israel banned all cooperation with Unrwa’s activities in Gaza and the occupied West Bank this year, claiming the agency had been infiltrated by Hamas, an allegation that is fiercely contested

Israel’s genocide is expanding into the West Bank | The Listening Post

With international media’s attention on the captive exchange, the Israeli military and settlers are forcibly displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank. Meanwhile, Israeli journalists are parroting military talking points of security operations.

Israeli settlers torch cars in West Bank during overnight attack

Israeli settlers torched 20 cars during an attack on Palestinian property on the outskirts of Ramallah on Monday, residents said, in one of their boldest raids yet in the area that serves as the Palestinians' seat of government in the occupied West Bank. Around a dozen attackers, masked and carrying petrol bombs, targeted the Al-Bireh area, which adjoins Ramallah, at about 3am, torching the cars in a matter of minutes. The Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency were investigating after receiving a report that a number of Palestinian cars had been burned

Israel’s deadly and destructive operation in the West Bank

The other half of Israel’s war: settlers and the army brutalise Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has overseen a deadly and destructive 10-day military operation in the occupied West Bank. As international law and global media have fallen short in holding the Israelis to account during 11 months of genocide in Gaza, what hopes do the Palestinians have that outcomes will be any different in the West Bank?

Ramadan repression in the West Bank

Violent repression in the West Bank is making a bad situation unbearable.

With the global media’s attention trained on Gaza since October 7, things have worsened for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, and near impossible for journalists to cover.

With their movement severely restricted, dozens of Palestinian journalists have been arrested, often held without trial or charge.

Israeli soldiers filmed reciting Jewish prayers inside West Bank mosque

Footage circulating on social media on Thursday showed Israeli soldiers singing and reciting Jewish prayers through speakers inside a mosque in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank. The location of the videos was verified by Reuters using buildings, the minaret and trees that matched file video, Google Street View and satellite imagery of the mosque. Reuters was not able to verify the date the footage was filmed. The soldiers have since been removed from operational activity. 'The behaviour of the soldiers in the videos is serious and stands in complete opposition to the values of the IDF. The soldiers will be disciplined accordingly,' the military said

Israel-Gaza war: West Bank Palestinian children arrested by Israeli sold...

Palestinian Prisoners' Club said the Israeli army detained at least 260 Palestinians - some of them children - in the West Bank during the first week of the truce in Gaza. That’s more than the number of prisoners released as part of the deal to free Israeli hostages from Hamas. Israeli authorities contacted by the BBC have not disputed the figure. Palestinian mother of six Falestin Nakhle received a call from her son Karim, 12, while he was in Israeli custody.

8-year-old shot dead by Israeli forces in West Bank -| BBC News

Two Palestinian boys have been shot dead in the street in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during a raid by Israeli forces. They were 8 and 14 years old. With war in Gaza, tension and violence have been rising in the West Bank, which is occupied by Israel but run by the Palestinian Authority.

How Israel created a water crisis for Palestinians | It's Complicated

Water is one of the most precious resources in Israel and the Palestinian territories. But there is a stark imbalance in how this resource is distributed. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli-owned farms are flourishing, while Palestinians often do not have enough water to drink. And in Gaza, Palestinians are facing deadly levels of water shortage. Josh Toussaint-Strauss examines how Israel took control of the region's water supply and created a deadly scarcity crisis for Palestinians

Reports of shootings in East Jerusalem and the West Bank

 

There are reports of shootings in both East Jerusalem and the West Bank. For the latest DW spoke to journalist Sami Sockol in Jerusalem.

After two days of raids in Jenin, Netanyahu says more to come in the future | DW News

 

Israeli troops are beginning to withdraw from the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, as the Israeli military confirms it carried out an airstrike on a cemetery in the east of the city. After two days of raids and drone strikes, at least twelve Palestinians have been killed. Dozens more are injured, while thousands of others have fled their homes.

What is behind the rise in violence in the occupied West Bank?

 

Israel’s attack on the Jenin refugee camp on Monday killed six Palestinians and injured many more. 

This year has been marked by the Israeli military’s escalations in the occupied West Bank – the likes of which have not been seen in decades.

Israel intercepts more than two dozen rockets from Lebanon | DW News

 

Several rockets have been fired on northern Israel from Lebanon. It's not known who was behind the attack, but Lebanese reports say the salvo was launched from Palestinian refugee camps. A Katyusha rocket appears to have damaged a car in the Israeli town of Fassuta. The Israeli army says it successfully intercepted more than two dozen missiles. The escalation comes after clashes this week between Israeli police and Palestinians inside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third holiest site.

Hate speech and pogroms in the West Bank

 

Fire, violence and exultant settlers – the occupation of the West Bank gets darker. Plus, journalism is in crisis in Pakistan.

Two months in to the most far-right government in Israel’s history, Palestinians are seeing their rights evaporate while the media – both Israeli and international – underplay the Palestinian plight.

Nine Palestinians killed in Israeli raid in occupied West Bank

 

Nine Palestinians have been killed during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian health officials said. An elderly woman was reported among the dead, in the town of Jenin.

Jenin in the West Bank: Guns and grief on the rise

 

Israel's military has been carrying out arrest raids in the occupied West Bank - a frequent event since a wave of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis earlier this year.

Dozens of Palestinians, mainly militants, have been killed during army incursions, and the UN’s human rights office has raised concerns over “excessive force” and “possible collective punishment”. Israel has rejected such accusations.

The focus has been on Jenin refugee camp, home to several militant groups and where attackers have come from.

Is a third Intifada on the way?

 

Some now see the beginnings of a new Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation.

Two intifadas, or mass Palestinian uprisings, have happened in the past, both fuelled by anger at Israeli occupation and oppression.