city:hura

  • Palestinian shot dead ’in cold blood’ by Israeli police during Negev demolition raid
    Jan. 18, 2017 9:44 A.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 11:53 A.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?ID=774987

    MK Ayman Odeh, shot and injured in the head with a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli police

    NEGEV (Ma’an) — Two people were killed and several others were hospitalized Wednesday after a predawn demolition raid into the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in the Negev region erupted into clashes, as Israeli forces used rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas canisters, and stun grenades to violently suppress locals and supporters who had gathered to resist the demolitions.

    A Palestinian citizen of Israel was shot dead by Israeli forces after he allegedly carried out a car ramming attack on Israeli officers, leaving several injured, according to Israeli police. However, a numerous eyewitness accounts said that the driver lost control of his vehicle after he was shot, causing him to crash into Israeli police, one of whom was killed.

    Israeli Knesset member Taleb Abu Arar said that the police killed Abu Qian “in cold blood," Israeli news site Ynet quoted him as saying. “The police shot him for no reason. The claims that he tried to run over police are not true.”

    Locals identified the slain Palestinian citizen of Israel as 47-year-old Yaqoub Moussa Abu al-Qian , a math teacher at al-Salam High School in the nearby town of Hura.

    Israeli police later confirmed that a policeman succumbed to injuries he sustained by being hit by the car. The slain officer was identified as 34-year-old Erez Levi.

    Knesset member Ayman Odeh and head of the Joint List, which represents parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel, was injured in the head and back with rubber-coated steel bullets, locals said, and taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.

    Odeh wrote in a statement on his Facebook page saying that “a crime was committed in Umm al-Hiran as hundreds of police members violently raided the village firing tear-gas bombs, stun grenades, and rubber-coated steel bullets. Villagers, women, men, and children stood with their bare hands against the brutality and violence of the police.”

    Hundreds of Israeli police arrived to Umm al-Hiran at around 5 a.m. to secure the area for Israeli authorities to carry out a demolition campaign in the village.

    Israeli news blog 972 Magazine quoted witness and activist Kobi Snitz as saying that police began pulling drivers out of vehicles, and attacking and threatening others.

    A short while later, Snitz said he heard gunfire and saw a white pickup truck about 30 meters from police, telling 972: “They started shooting at the car in bursts from all directions.”

    According to the report, it was only after the driver appeared to have been wounded and lost control of his vehicle that it crashed into the police officers, contradiction Israeli police reports.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Une opération de démolition tourne mal en Israël : un policier et un villageois tués
      AFP / 18 janvier 2017 09h18
      http://www.romandie.com/news/Une-operation-de-demolition-tourne-mal-en-Israel-un-policier-et-un-villageois-tues/768760.rom

      Umm al-Hiran (Israël) - Une opération de démolition dans un village bédouin a très mal tourné mercredi dans une communauté emblématique du sud d’Israël, où un policier israélien et un villageois arabe ont été tués dans des circonstances différentes selon les versions de la police et des villageois.

      Le policier Erez Levi, 34 ans, est mort dans une attaque à la voiture bélier dont l’auteur a ensuite été abattu, a indiqué la police qui a décrit le conducteur comme un « terroriste ».

      Plusieurs villageois et l’assistant d’un député arabe présent sur place ont contesté cette version des faits.

      Les policiers avaient été dépêchés dans le village bédouin d’Umm al-Hiran pour sécuriser la démolition de plusieurs maisons de bédouins, dépourvues selon les autorités israéliennes des permis nécessaires.

      « A l’arrivée des unités de police sur la zone, un véhicule conduit par un terroriste du Mouvement islamique a tenté d’attaquer un groupe de policiers en les percutant. Les policiers ont riposté et le terroriste a été neutralisé », a dit un porte-parole de la police, Micky Rosenfeld. Une autre porte-parole de la police a confirmé la mort du conducteur.

      Plusieurs policiers ont été blessés, a dit M. Rosenfeld.

      Raed Abou al-Qiyan, responsable d’un comité prodiguant des services aux villageois, a contesté cette version.

      « La version israélienne est un mensonge. Il (le conducteur) était un enseignant respecté. Ils (les policiers) sont arrivés et ont commencé à tirer sans discrimination des balles en caoutchouc, visant les gens, allant jusqu’à blesser le député (arabe israélien) Ayman Odeh qui essayait de leur parler », a déclaré à l’AFP Raed Abou al-Qiyan, qui dit avoir été témoin direct des faits.

    • Renewed clashes erupt in Negev village as Israeli bulldozers begin demolitions
      Jan. 18, 2017 12:38 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 12:38 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774991

      (...) At around noon, renewed clashes erupted as Israeli bulldozers began razing the homes to the ground.

      Residents crowded and hurled stones at Israeli police officers who showered the demonstrators with tear gas to disperse them.

      Palestinian MK Osama Saadi was lightly injured in the leg and was taken to Soroka hospital in Beersheva for treatment, according to Israeli news website Walla.

      In addition, Israeli police officers denied a number of Palestinian Knesset members entry into the village. Among them were MK Ahmad Tibi and Hanin Zoubi. Israeli police prevented hundreds of vehicles from entering the village as residents were seen evacuating belongings from their homes ahead of the demolitions.

      Palestinian MK Jamal Zahalqa urged the Israeli government to pull out police and avoid using force. A solution could be reached, he told reporters, by dialogue in a way that shows respect to the residents of Umm al-Hiran.

    • Umm al-Hiran man killed after police open fire during violent demolition operation in Bedouin village
      18/01/2017
      https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9001

      Adalah: Israeli courts, gov’t responsible for death of 50 year old; residents refute police claims of attack; eyewitnesses confirm Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an lost control of car after police fired at him.

      Israeli police killed a 50-year-old local teacher this morning (Wed. 18 January 2017) and wounded local residents and a Knesset member during a violent incursion into Atir-Umm al-Hiran aimed at demolishing a central section of the Naqab (Negev) Bedouin village. One police officer was also killed during the incident.

      Adalah, which represented the Bedouin residents of Atir–Umm al-Hiran in legal proceedings over the past 13 years to stop the village’s demolition responded to the events of this morning that: "The Israeli judiciary and the government are responsible for the killing in the village today. The Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to allow the state to proceed with its plan to demolish the village, which has existed for 60 years, in order to establish a Jewish town called ’Hiran’ over its ruins, is one of the most racist judgments that the Court has ever issued. (...)

    • Israeli police accused of cover-up over killing during Negev demolition raid
      Jan. 18, 2017 2:16 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 2:16 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774990

      NEGEV (Ma’an) — The Joint List, which represents parties led by Palestinian citizens of Israel in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, accused Israeli police of spreading misinformation to Israeli media regarding an alleged vehicle attack Wednesday morning in the Negev, in order to distract from Israel’s campaign to establish Jewish-only towns “on the ruins of Bedouin villages.”

      The statement warned the Israeli government of the dangerous consequences of the “bloody” escalation, after Israeli police raided the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran to evacuate residents in order to demolish their homes.

      The raid turned deadly, when a 47-year-old Palestinian with Israeli citizenship was shot and killed by police “in cold blood,” according to witnesses. However, Israeli police claimed the man deliberately rammed his car into officers.

      Hours later, as Israeli bulldozers began razing the homes to the ground, renewed clashes erupted in the village.

      Umm al-Hiran is one of 35 Bedouin villages considered “unrecognized” by the Israeli state, and more than half of the approximately 160,000 Negev Bedouins reside in unrecognized villages.

      The unrecognized Bedouin villages were established in the Negev soon after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war following the creation of the state of Israel.

      Now more than 60 years later, the villages have yet to be recognized by Israel and live under constant threats of demolition and forcible removal.

    • Palestinian, Israeli leadership react to deadly police raid of Bedouin village
      Jan. 18, 2017 6:12 P.M. (Updated: Jan. 18, 2017 6:12 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=774995

      RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Saeb Erekat condemned Israeli authorities for the “crime” committed Wednesday during a demolition campaign in the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran, during which a Palestinian citizen of Israel was shot dead by Israeli police and an Israeli policeman was killed, and numerous Palestinians were injured.

      Erekat accused the Israeli government of reacting to attempts by the international community to achieve peace between Palestinians and Israelis by escalating a policy of “racism, ethnic cleansing, and the evacuation of indigenous Palestinians from their lands, in a desperate attempt to Judaize the country.”

      He called attention to the estimated 1.7 million Palestinians with Israeli citizenship who “are living amid the racist system of Israel,” adding that the demolition Palestinian homes in the Israeli city of Qalansawe had “continued in Qalandiya refugee camp yesterday and in Umm al-Hiran today.”

      Erekat stressed that the international community’s silence towards Israeli actions only bought time and immunity for Israel to commit more crimes, adding that the situation “requires an immediate and urgent international intervention to stop this chaos before it’s too late.”

      Meanwhile, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that not holding Israel accountable regarding its role as an occupying power “lessens the credibility of countries who demand reviving and realizing the two-state solution.”

      The ministry argued that Israel’s belligerence in the face of international conventions “calls for an international ethical wakening to punish Israel for its violations, and to end its occupation of Palestine.” (...)

    • Umm al-Hiran : Odeh accuse Netanyahu d’avoir refusé un accord et déclenché les affrontements
      Le député arabe affirme que les habitants du village bédouin avaient accepté un compromis quelques heures avant l’explosion des violences mortelles
      Stuart Winer 18 janvier 2017, 17:33
      http://fr.timesofisrael.com/odeh-accuse-netanyahu-davoir-refuse-un-accord-et-declenche-les-aff

      Le dirigeant de la Liste arabe unie a accusé mercredi le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu d’avoir causé un violent affrontement dans un village bédouin, au cours duquel un policier et un habitant ont été tués. Il a affirmé que Netanyahu avait manqué à sa parole à propos d’un accord concernant les démolitions de maisons du village.

      S’adressant aux journalistes devant le centre médical Soroka de Beer Sheva, le député Ayman Odeh, qui portait un bandage sur la tête après avoir été blessé pendant les manifestations, a réclamé une enquête gouvernementale sur les événements.

      Des démolitions de maisons du village bédouin non autorisé d’Umm al-Hiran, dans le Néguev, ont été perturbées mercredi matin quand une voiture, conduite par l’instituteur du village, Yaqoub Mousa Abu Al-Qian, est entrée dans la ligne formée par les policiers. Un policier, Erez Levi, 34 ans, a été tué, et un autre a été blessé.

      « Nous étions en négociations jusque tard dans la nuit », a déclaré Odeh, sans préciser les responsables présents pour représenter l’Etat.

      « Je participais aux négociations. Nous avions presque terminé. Nous avions atteint un compromis, que les habitants d’Umm al-Hiran ont accepté. Mais le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu, qui a déjà identifié la population arabe comme l’ennemi public numéro un, a cruellement décidé de détruire un village entier, de tirer et de frapper des hommes, des femmes, et des enfants. »(...)

    • Israeli police video reveals cops opened fire on Bedouin man before his car accelerated, contradicting police claims
      19/01/2017
      https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9002

      Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an (Photo courtesy of Mossawa Center)

      Adalah demands criminal investigation; police in Umm al-Hiran violated open-fire regulations, and prevented ambulance crew from treating Abu Al-Qi’an for three hours after shooting.

      Hours after Israeli police gunfire led to the death of a Bedouin man during a violent home demolition operation, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel is demanding that Israeli authorities investigate the suspicious circumstances of his death.

      Mr. Ya’akub Musa Abu Al-Qi’an, a 50-year-old math teacher from Atir-Umm al-Hiran in the Naqab (Negev), Israel’s southern desert region, was killed after Israeli police opened fire on his vehicle as he was driving through the Bedouin village during state preparations for a large-scale home demolition.

      The parents of Abu Al-Qi’an have asked Adalah to represent the family and to demand that the Justice Ministry’s Police Investigations Division (Mahash) investigate the circumstances of their son’s death.

      In the letter to Mahash, sent late last night (18 January 2017), Adalah Attorneys Nadeem Shehadeh and Mohammad Bassam argue that police video footage of the incident and eyewitness testimony reveal that police opened fire on Abu Al-Qi’an’s vehicle before he accelerated in the direction of officers. This totally contradicts police claims that Abu Al Qi’an sought to “ram” them with his vehicle.(...)

    • Israeli police close probe into January killing of Palestinian teacher
      Dec. 30, 2017 3:40 P.M. (Updated: Dec. 30, 2017 3:40 P.M.)
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=779708

      BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Israeli Police Investigations Division (PID) has decided to close its probe into the January police killing of Palestinian math teacher Yaqoub Abu al-Qian, and to not hold any officers responsible for his death, Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said in a statement on Thursday.

      Abu al-Qian, a 50-year-old math teacher from the Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran in southern Israel’s Negev desert, was shot dead by Israeli police in January while he was driving at night, causing him to spin out of control and crash into Israeli officers, killing one policeman.

      Abu al-Qian was driving through the village as dozens of Israeli forces were preparing for a large-scale home demolition in Umm al-Hiran. Israeli forces at the time claimed he was attempted to carry out a vehicular attack, though witness testimonies and video footage of the incident proved contradictory to police accusations.

      Israeli police footage appeared to show police officers shooting at al-Qian as he was driving at a very slow pace, and only several seconds after the gunfire does his car appear to speed up, eventfully plowing through police officers.

      The killing of Abu al-Qian sparked widespread outrage amongst Palestinian civilians and politicians, who claimed he was “extrajudicially executed.

      After demands from his family and the community for police to conduct a probe into his killing, Adalah filed a request demanding the PID open an investigation into the death of Abu al-Qian.

      “The closure of this investigation means the PID continues to grant legitimacy to deadly police violence against Arab citizens of Israel,” Adalah said in it’s statement.

    • Une terrible injustice, reconnue sur le tard, et pour les mauvaises raisons
      Un civil et un policier ont perdu la vie en 2017 dans ce village, et les autorités ont tiré une mauvaise conclusion – la vérité est désormais connue, et les dégâts considérables
      Par David Horovitz 10 septembre 2020,
      https://fr.timesofisrael.com/une-terrible-injustice-reconnue-sur-le-tard-et-pour-les-mauvaises-

      (...) Cependant, près de quatre ans après l’incident, le Premier ministre Benjamin Netanyahu a reconnu ce que ces vidéos de drones avaient indiqué dès le départ – que le récit officiel était faux – et il a présenté des excuses à la famille d’Abou Al-Qia’an : « Ils [la police] ont dit que c’était un terroriste. Hier, il s’est avéré qu’il n’était pas un terroriste », a déclaré le Premier ministre mardi soir. La police, pour sa part, a exprimé ses regrets, bien qu’elle n’ait pas présenté d’excuses ni rétracté l’accusation de terrorisme.
      L’ancien procureur général Shai Nitzan. (Miriam Alster/FLASH90)

      La vérité n’a été officiellement reconnue qu’à la suite d’un reportage télévisé cette semaine mettant en évidence la dissimulation officielle – un reportage télévisé qui s’imbrique, comme tant d’autres affaires courantes israéliennes de nos jours, dans les embrouilles juridiques de Netanyahu. C’est l’ancien procureur général Shai Nitzan qui a supervisé l’enquête de 2018 et qui aurait supprimé des preuves – le même Shai Nitzan fréquemment fustigé par Netanyahu en tant que figure clé dans la prétendue tentative de coup d’Etat politique dans laquelle le Premier ministre est jugé dans trois affaires de corruption. (...)

  • Zionism at its best
    http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.756077
    The land that Israel has designated for the joyous settlers is called Atir/Umm al-Hiran, and for 60 years it has been home to members of the Bedouin Al-Qi’an tribe.
    By Amira Hass | Nov. 30, 2016 | 4:48 AM | 1

    The videos produced by the Hiran settlers’ group show a lot of joyful Jews who like to sing and play music, tell jokes and have fun. They will be even happier very soon, when they move to the site of their permanent community in the northeastern Negev.

    The land the state has designated for them is called Atir/Umm al-Hiran, and for 60 years it has been home to members of the Bedouin Al-Qi’an tribe. In other words, the homes and playgrounds for Jewish children that will be built there, and the gardens to be planted, will all be established on the ruins of the homes and lives of some 1,000 other people, who are also Israeli citizens (some of whom served in the army, for those who care).

    Any day now, the bulldozers of the Israel Land Administration and/or its subcontractors are going to demolish the homes of these Bedouin citizens to make way for a flourishing community of joyful Jewish citizens. Zionism in a nutshell.

    This is not an act of war or even an act of vindictive passion; everything has been calmly and carefully planned. The government of Ariel Sharon decided, the National Planning and Building Council approved, and the appeals committees rejected all the objections filed.

    The plan to destroy the lives of Bedouin for whom the Negev has been home for hundreds of years to advance and elevate a group of Jews who have gathered from all over the country – this also has the approval and sanction of six judges from three different courts: Israel Pablo Akselrad of the Kiryat Gat Magistrate’s Court; Judges Sarah Dovrat, Rachel Barkai and Ariel Vago of the Be’er Sheva District Court and Justices Elyakim Rubinstein and Neal Hendel of the Supreme Court. (Justice Daphne Barak-Erez objected to the demolition.)

    These judges knew that the Al-Qi’an tribe has lived in Umm al-Hiran since 1956, after being sent there at the order of the military governor. After 1948, those few Bedouin whom Israel did not expel to Gaza or the West Bank and Jordan were ordered to stay in a designated area of the Negev, which has gradually been reduced. The Al-Qi’an tribe was forced to leave the lands it had lived on for several generations, and on which Kibbutz Shoval was built. After years of wandering and evacuations, they were allowed to settle in the area of Wadi Yatir. Nevertheless, the state never officially recognized their village. That’s 60 years without electricity, water service or government expenditure on education, welfare or health. Moreover, all its structures are defined as “illegal.”

    The Startup Nation wants them to move to the Bedouin township of Hura. So here’s another mini-lesson in Zionism: Jewish Israelis are allowed to decide for themselves where and how to live. Arabs? They should be thankful we aren’t expelling them; they’ll live where and how we decide.

    Wrote Judge Akselrad: “We can say that the personal interest of the plaintiffs that the roofs over their heads not be demolished are not weighty under these circumstances, and in any case do not prevail over the public interest of preventing construction on state lands.”

    And the judges in Be’er Sheva put it, “Once it was determined that the permission given the appellants to use the land was revocable, the respondent has the right to demand their eviction from the land. … The claim that the respondent has some covert or even overt motive for evacuating them from the land in favor of establishing a Jewish community at the site … [must be discussed] by a different tribunal.”

    And what did the two justices from the different tribunal, the Supreme Court, say? They hid behind the procedural explanation that the residents had been late in filing their complaints against the destruction of their homes and lives.

    The majority decision by Rubinstein and Hendel permitting the village’s demolition was handed down in May 2015. Now the children and adults in Umm al-Hiran know that any minute the bulldozers and Jewish officials bearing official orders will be coming to kick them out.

  • Palestinian shot dead after Beersheba attack kills Israeli, wounds 9
    Oct. 18, 2015 8:00 P.M. (Updated: Oct. 18, 2015 10:35 P.M.)
    http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768337

    BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — A suspected Palestinian was shot dead in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba after he allegedly opened fire in the city’s central bus station, killing one soldier and injuring at least nine other Israelis, Israeli police said.

    Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told Ma’an that nine Israelis had been hospitalized following the attack.

    He said the attacker was shot dead, although he was unable to confirm that he was Palestinian.

    He initially said that there had been two attackers, one of whom was apprehended.

    Although it remained clear who the second individual was, Israeli media suggested the second man may have been an Eritrean asylum seeker.

    Israeli news site Haaretz reported that the asylum seeker was shot by Israeli police after they “misidentified him as a terrorist.”

    Haaretz quoted the southern district chief of police, Deputy Commissioner Yoram Levi, as saying that after killing the Israeli soldier, the attacker “took the soldier’s gun and continued shooting in the central bus station.”

    “Forces in the area responded quickly, he managed to escape the central bus station but ran into forces, was shot and killed. In his belongings we found a knife and a pistol with ammunition.”

    Rosenfeld said that the area around the central bus station was closed off.

    The attack follows a series of stabbing attacks that have left seven Israelis dead since the beginning of the month.

    Some 42 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the same period — some after carrying out the alleged attacks, but others at demonstrations.

    There have been clashes across Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.

    They were prompted by Israeli army and settler reprisals after four Israelis were killed in two separate attacks at the beginning of October, although tensions had been mounting for weeks.

    #Palestine_assassinée

    • Au moins un mort et huit blessés après une attaque dans le sud d’Israël
      18/10/2015
      http://www.france24.com/fr/20151018-israel-territoires-palestiniens-attaque-gare-routiere

      L’attaque d’une gare routière dans le sud d’Israël a fait au moins un mort et huit blessés, dimanche. L’assaillant, qui a été tué, n’a pas encore été identifié.

      Un homme armé a attaqué dimanche 18 octobre la gare routière de Beersheba, dans le sud d’Israël, tuant une personne et en blessant huit autres, rapporte la police. Il s’agit d’un des épisodes les plus violents de la vague de violence qui secoue Israël et les territoires occupés depuis le début du mois d’octobre.

      Selon les premières informations, les assaillants étaient au nombre de deux mais le chef de la police régionale israélienne, Yoram Halévy, a déclaré par la suite que l’enquête avait conclu à l’action d’un seul homme. Ce dernier, dont l’identification était en cours, a pénétré dans la gare routière, abattu un militaire à l’aide d’une arme de poing avant de lui prendre son fusil d’assaut, dont il s’est servi pour tirer sur ses autres victimes.

      Les islamistes du Hamas, qui contrôlent la bande de Gaza, ont qualifié l’attaque de Beersheba de « réaction naturelle aux exécutions de Palestiniens par Israël ».

      Depuis deux semaines, 42 Palestiniens et sept Israéliens sont morts dans des heurts et des agressions en Cisjordanie, à Jérusalem-Est, à la frontière entre la bande de Gaza et l’Etat hébreu ainsi que dans des villes israéliennes.

    • One Killed, 11 Wounded in Shooting Attack in Southern Israel

      Gunman goes on shooting spree at central bus station in Be’er Sheva before he is shot down; security guard shoots asylum seeker after misidentifying him as an assailant.
      Almog Ben Zikri Oct 18, 2015 9:56 PM
      http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.681069

      An Israeli soldier was killed and 11 others were wounded in a shooting at the Central Bus Station in the Southern Israeli city of Be’er Sheva on Sunday evening.

      Among the wounded, two are in serious condition. The others sustained light to moderate wounds. An Eritrean asylum seeker was shot and wounded by a security guard after he misidentified him as a terrorist. The terrorist was shot and killed.

      According to the police, the identity of the terrorist is currently being ascertained.

      The bus station is a closed compound with security guards posted at the entrances. It is unclear how the gunmen managed to get past the guards.

    • Israeli security identify Beersheba attack suspect, detain relative
      Oct. 19, 2015 10:41 A.M. (Updated : Oct. 19, 2015 11:06 A.M.
      http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=768344

      BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli security forces have identified a Palestinian suspect who opened fire at a Beersheba bus station on Sunday killing an Israeli soldier and injuring nine other people, detaining one of the man’s relatives in relation to the incident.

      The suspect was identified as Muhannad al-Aqabi , 21, a Bedouin citizen of Israel from the Negev town of Hura, Israeli police said.

      Israel’s Shin Bet security agency have questioned al-Aqabi’s relatives on suspicion that he had help, including weapon training, to carry out the attack.

      One family member was detained on suspicion of helping to plan the attack.

      Al-Aqabi attacked Israelis at the central bus station in the southern Israeli city after entering the terminal with a knife and gun, killing an Israeli soldier and injuring nine people, including four other soldiers.

      He was shot dead at the scene.

      The Israeli soldier was identified as Omri Levi, 19.

      Meanwhile, an Eritrean man who was shot after being suspected of being a second attacker died from his injuries on Monday.

      The man was identified as Haftom Zarhum, 29, and had traveled to Beersheba to obtain a visa, Israeli news site Haaretz reported.

      Graphic video footage shows Zarhum being assaulted and kicked in the head as he lies bleeding on the ground, with several benches thrown at him as an angry Israeli mob surrounds him, believing the asylum seeker to be involved in the attack.

      Israeli police have not said whether anyone has been detained for the attack on the Eritrean.

    • Gunman Behind Be’er Sheva Shooting Attack Identified as Bedouin Man

      Israeli soldier was killed and 11 people were wounded in Sunday’s attack; Eritrean asylum seeker, who was shot after being mistaken for terrorist, dies of wounds.
      Almog Ben Zikri and Ido Efrati Oct 19, 2015 9:51 AM
      http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-1.681151

      Among the wounded in the attack, two suffered serious wounds, with another said to be in critical condition. The soldier who was killed in the attack has been named as 19-year-old Sgt. Omri Levy from Sdei Hemed.

      The asylum seeker who was killed in the attack was identified as Haftom Zarhum, 29, of Eritrea. He had traveled to Be’er Sheva to obtain a visa and was on his way home when he was shot in the Central Bus Station. In videos captured at the scene, the asylum seeker is seen attacked by the people around him, including a soldier, after being shot. People are seen kicking him, throwing a bench at him and pinning him to the ground with a chair. Some of the witnesses made efforts to stop the attackers.

  • La Cour suprême israélienne autorise la démolition des habitations bédouines de Oum al-Hiran pour reconstruire une nouvelle ville juive.

    Supreme Court allows state to replace Bedouin village with Jewish one - Israel - Israel News | Haaretz
    http://www.haaretz.com/news/israel/1.655145

    Israel’s Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a petition by residents of the unrecognized Bedouin village of Umm al-Hiran against their removal and the demolition of the community – in order to construct a new town for Jewish residents in its place. The court ruled the land belongs to the state and the Bedouins have no legal rights to it.

    “The state is the owner of the lands in dispute, which were registered in its name in the framework of the arrangement process; the residents have acquired no rights to the land but have settled them [without any authorization], which the state cancelled legally. In such a situation, there is no justification for intervention in the rulings of the previous courts,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein in the majority opinion.

    Rubinstein ruled that the appeal should be rejected for two reasons: First, because the petition was an indirect attack against the decisions of the government’s establishment of the new community of Hiran, to be built on the state-owned land – a challenge that should have been raised in other forums. Second, the judges ruled the government’s actions did not in any way violate the petitioners’ legal rights – and even if such rights were harmed, it was a “proportionate harm.”

    The Supreme Court decision concerns only the evacuation orders. The Kiryat Gat Magistrate’s Court is scheduled to hold a hearing at the end of this month about the demolition orders for the houses in Umm al-Hiran.

    Residents fought cabinet decision

    In November 2013, a number of families from the Abu Alkiyan clan, who live in the unrecognized community of Umm al-Hiran, filed a petition with the aid of Adalah – Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, to prevent the demolition of their homes and the evacuation of the residents – after the cabinet approved the creation of Hiran and the demolition of their unrecognized village.

    The petitioners claimed they did not squat on the land, but were transferred to the area in the Yattir Forest in 1956 by direct order of the military administration of the time. But now, their lands lie within the master plan of the Be’er Sheva metropolitan area. The government has never denied that the residents were moved to Umm al-Hiran by state authorities. Umm al-Hiran is now home to about 700 people, say residents, but like other Bedouin villages that lack official recognition as local municipal communities, it lacks infrastructure and electricity.

    The Abu Alkiyan clan now resides in two villages, Atir and Umm al-Hiran, located near Wadi Atir, close to Route 316 and east of the village of Houra. Until 1948, the clan lived on the land now used by Kibbutz Shoval. After the War of Independence, they traveled across the Negev looking for new land, but did not find any, because most of it was already claimed by other tribes. In 1956, it approached the military administration and was transferred to the Wadi Atir area. A classified military administration document dating from 1957 says the clan received 7,000 dunams of land near the wadi. It then split into two hamlets that shared the land. Unlike in many Bedouin communities, the houses in Atir and Umm al-Hiran are built of stone.

    Decade of house demolitions

    Over the past decade houses in the village were demolished a number of times, and residents were offered a compromise of moving to the nearby town of Hura, where they would be compensated with an 800-square meter plot of land. But the families who petitioned the court refused the offer, saying they will not be removed from their land a third time.

    Rubinstein wrote about this claim: “This is not expulsion and not expropriation, but the proposed evacuation involves various proposals of moving, construction, compensation and the possibility of homes, whether in the town of Hura where most of the residents of the illegal villages involved will be moved, or in the community of Hiran, which is to be built.”

    In conclusion, Rubinstein said the issue of the Bedouin lands is one of the most difficult and challenging the court has dealt with, and is filled with sensitive emotions and political disputes.

    Justice Daphne Barak-Erez, who disagreed with parts of Rubinstein’s opinion, criticized the government’s actions: “The petitioners cannot receive the full support they asked for, but it is also not possible to reconcile oneself with the flaws in the authorities’ actions concerning the decision on the evacuation and compensation involved.” She said the authorities should reconsider the compensation offered, since the residents had lived there for 20 years and were not trespassing. In addition the state should consider offering them a plot to live in the new town to be built on the land, in addition to the previous proposals, she suggested.

    In 2012, the National Planning and Building Council approved the master plan for Hiran, the latest in a series of decisions on the matter by the state. Despite being approved, work on the town was delayed following the appeal by the Bedouin residents. Hiran is slated for 2,400 housing units, and the Bedouin can also choose to live there if they want, attorney Moshe Golan, representing the government, told the court in one of the hearings. But he noted the Bedouin residents would not receive the same 800-square meter plot in Hiran they would receive elsewhere, since the plots in Hiran were much smaller. The core group of families slated to move to Hiran are national religious Jews, who are to be joined by secular residents moving to the site from the nearby community of Meitar, along with others.

    Salim Abu Alkian of Umm al-Hiran, who led the residents in the court petition, told Haaretz he was disappointed by the decision. “The decision was very disappointing, but we knew beforehand that is what would happen.” He accused the entire Israeli establishment, government and courts of racism.

    Residents plan to stay put

    Abu Alkian said the residents will go on refusing to be moved to nearby Hura: “I will continue to fight since I am not a criminal, and this is my home.” He said they were considering turning to an international court to protest.

    Adalah said that even though the Supreme Court noted in its decision that the residents are living in the area with permission of the state and at its instruction, the “court makes do with the technical authority of the state to act as it pleases with the land on which Umm al-Hiran and Atir sit. In doing so, the court gave legitimacy to the erasing of an entire village off the face of the earth and the expulsion of its residents, while ignoring the entire human, political, social and historical perspective.”

    Adalah said that together with the residents, human rights organizations and Arab community representatives, it would in the coming days examine legal and public tactics to protect the village from demolition

  • Qaeda gunmen rob Yemeni post office, kill policeman
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/qaeda-gunmen-rob-yemeni-post-office-kill-policeman

    Suspected #al-Qaeda militants attacked a post office in #Yemen's southeastern Hadramawt province, killing a policeman and making off with two million riyals (US $10,000), security officials said Wednesday. The policeman was guarding the post office in the town of Hura when attackers late Tuesday killed him and fled with the cash, the officials said. Robberies in Yemen by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) jihadists are common as the network attempts to finance itself. read more

    #AQAP