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Palestinian-American Saif al-Din Abdul Karim Musalat’s body — draped in a flag and covered with a yellow and orange wreath — was carried through the crowded streets of Al-Mazra’ah ash-Sharqiyah in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.The village, perched atop limestone hills, is known for its colonnaded villas and manicured gardens — and its few thousand residents who mostly come from the Palestinian diaspora in North America.Musalat, 20, was one of them. Born and raised in Florida, he ran an ice cream parlour in Tampa, arriving in the Palestinian territory just a few weeks ago with a plan to spend the summer with his mother and siblings.But on Friday, he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in nearby Sinjil, the Palestinian health ministry said, in the latest violence to hit the village north of Ramallah.Hundreds gathered on Sunday, chanting prayers and slogans at Musalat’s funeral. Inside his family’s upmarket home, women wept and screamed at the sight of the young man’s lifeless body. On one of the walls, the young man looked from a poster — his beard neatly groomed and against the backdrop of the Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem’s Islamic sanctuary.Two teenagers embraced as tears ran down their faces. “It’s awful,” one of them sobbed.In recent months, the area has witnessed frequent attacks by Israeli settlers, sometimes backed by the Israeli army, local residents say. A few days before Musalat’s death, the UN said that “attacks, harassment, and intimidation by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have become a daily reality”.- ‘Dehumanisation’ -Musalat’s family said he was killed on farmland owned by them. Israeli settlers beat him brutally, they claimed, leaving him to die for over three hours and preventing a medical team from reaching him.The Israeli army confirmed that “violent clashes” occurred Friday “between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, along with acts of vandalism against Palestinian property” in the area, and said an investigation had been launched.The victim’s father told reporters after the funeral: “We demand justice for these terrorist settlers. There’s no doubt that they are terrorists. They’re illegally on these lands — they do not belong to them,” said Kamil Hafez Musalat.”We demand the US government do something about it. They’re always saying, you know, for justice, justice, justice. But as Palestinians, they dehumanise us,” he added.Hafez Abdoul Jabar, also a dual national, said he had been waiting for help from the US Embassy for weeks.”We need protection,” he told the crowd, adding that it has become nearly impossible for residents of the area to access their land without risking their lives.Jabar is also a bereaved father: his son was killed in January 2024 under unclear circumstances involving settlers and the Israeli military, his family reported.- Anger -In the village schoolyard, hundreds of men gathered to recite mourning prayers for Musalat and Mohammed al-Shalabi, 23, who also died on Friday after being shot during the attack and “left to bleed for hours”, according to the Palestinian health ministry. “We are people trying to live in peace. We try to protect our land. We have nothing against the world or against Israelis — we are just trying to preserve our land,” said his uncle, Samer al-Shalabi, calling the attacks “barbaric and savage”.”We will pursue justice as far as we can — but what good is the law if the judge is our enemy?”Violence in the Palestinian territory has surged since the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, after the Palestinian militants’ attack on October 7, 2023. At least 955 Palestinians — both militants and civilians — have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian Authority.At the same time, at least 36 Israelis, including both civilians and members of security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations in the West Bank, according to official Israeli data.

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed more than 30 Palestinians, including children at a water distribution point, as talks for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas stalled.Delegations from Israel and the Palestinian militant group have now spent a week trying to agree on a temporary truce to halt 21 months of bitter fighting in the Gaza Strip.But on Saturday, each side accused the other of blocking attempts to secure an agreement at the indirect talks in the Qatari capital, Doha.There has meanwhile been no let-up in Israeli strikes on Gaza, where most of the population of more than two million have been displaced at least once during the war.Seven UN agencies on Saturday warned that a fuel shortage had reached “critical levels”, threatening aid operations, hospital care and already chronic food insecurity.The civil defence agency said at least 31 people were killed in Israeli strikes overnight and into the morning.Eight people were killed in strikes on houses in Gaza City, in the north, agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal said.In the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, 10 people were killed in a strike on a house, while 10 others including eight children were killed at a water distribution point, Bassal said.”We woke up to the sound of two large explosions,” Khaled Rayyan told AFP after a house was flattened in Nuseirat. “Our neighbour and his children were under the rubble.”Another resident, Mahmud al-Shami, called on the negotiators to secure an end to the war.”What happened to us has never happened in the entire history of humanity,” he said. “Enough.”In southern Gaza, three people were killed when Israeli jets hit a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians in the coastal Al-Mawasi area, according to the civil defence spokesman.- Forced displacement fears -There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations across Gaza.On Saturday, the military said fighter jets had hit more than 35 “Hamas terror targets” around Beit Hanun in northern Gaza.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency and other parties.The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that led to 1,219 deaths, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Out of 251 people taken hostage that day, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 that the Israeli military says are dead.Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry says that at least 57,882 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed in Israel’s military reprisals. The UN considers the figures reliable.Talks to agree a 60-day ceasefire in the fighting and hostage release were in the balance on Saturday after Israel and Hamas accused each other of trying to block a deal.Hamas wants the complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, but a Palestinian source with knowledge of the talks said Israel had presented plans to maintain troops in more than 40 percent of the territory.The source said Israel wanted to force hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into the south of Gaza “in preparation for forcibly displacing them to Egypt or other countries”.A senior Israeli official said Israel had demonstrated “a willingness to flexibility in the negotiations, while Hamas remains intransigent, clinging to positions that prevent the mediators from advancing an agreement”.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he is prepared to enter talks for a more lasting end to hostilities once a temporary truce is agreed, but only if Hamas disarms.Thousands of people gathered in Israel’s coastal hub of Tel Aviv on Saturday calling for the release of the hostages.”The window of opportunity… is open now and it won’t be for long,” said former captive Eli Sharabi.

France’s defence relations with Australia have recovered after their 2021 bust-up over a major submarine contract, the country’s ambassador said Sunday.Paris expressed its “strong regrets” when Australia tore up a multibillion-dollar deal to buy a fleet of diesel-powered submarines from France, Ambassador Pierre-Andre Imbert said.Since the 2022 election of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, however, the …

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Police in several British cities on Saturday arrested scores of people for supporting Palestine Action, following a second consecutive weekend of protests over the government’s decision to ban the activist group using anti-terror laws.Campaign group Defend Our Juries, which had announced the rallies “to defy” the ban, said 86 people had been arrested across five different cities.They included four vicars, a lawyer, a civil servant, a social worker, a mechanical engineer and the daughter of a Polish resistance fighter, as well as veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement, the group added.”We will not be deterred from opposing genocide, nor from defending those who refuse to be bystanders,” the group said in a statement, referring to accusations levelled against Israel over its war in Gaza.The protesters were also taking a stand “against the corruption of democracy and the rule of law”, it added.In London, the Metropolitan Police said its officers had made 41 arrests for “showing support for a proscribed organisation”. Another person was arrested for common assault, the force added.Footage showed police moving in on a small group of protesters displaying signs supporting Palestine Action. They had gathered at lunchtime at the steps of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Parliament Square.Greater Manchester Police arrested 16 people, while officers in the Welsh capital Cardiff detained 13, all for the same offence under the 2000 Terrorism Act, both forces confirmed.”South Wales Police supports the right for people to make their voices heard through protest providing it is done lawfully,” said a police statement.- Support now a crime -The other arrests occurred in the Northern Irish city Londonderry — also known as Derry — and Leeds, in northern England, according to Defend Our Juries.They come a week after 29 similar arrests at protests staged last Saturday, mainly in London.Since the Palestine Action ban kicked in on July 5, police have warned that expressing support for the group was now a crime, after a last-ditch High Court challenge failed to stop its proscription becoming law.The government announced plans for the ban under the 2000 Terrorism Act days after the group’s activists claimed to be behind a break-in at an air force base in southern England.Two aircraft there were sprayed with red paint, causing an estimated £7 million ($9.55 million) in damage.Four people charged in relation to the incident remain in custody.Palestine Action has condemned its outlawing — which makes it a criminal offence to belong to or support the group, punishable by up to 14 years in prison — as an attack on free speech.

Southeast Turkey, where the army has battled Kurdish militants for decades, is not yet convinced that lasting peace is at hand.In a slickly managed ceremony across the border in Iraq Friday, members of the Kurdish rebel group PKK destroyed their weapons as part of a peace process underway with the Turkish state.But on the streets and in the tea houses of Hakkari, a Kurdish-majority town some 50 kilometres (31 miles) from the Iraqi border, few people express much hope that the deadly conflict is over.Police, including undercover officers, patrol the streets of the small town and make their presence felt, an AFP team observed, which discouraged locals from wanting to talk to visiting reporters.One tea drinker who was willing to speak asked not to be filmed.”We don’t talk about it because we never know what will happen tomorrow,” he explained.”We can say something now and tomorrow be punished for it,” he added, noting that previous peace attempts have failed. The conflict has caused 50,000 deaths among civilians and 2,000 among soldiers, according to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.- ‘All kinds of persecution’ -On the pavement in front of the restaurant where he works, Mehmet Duman raised his eyebrows. At 26, he’s already seen enough to make him doubt.”They segregated us, beat us, simply because we’re Kurdish,” he said. “We witnessed all kinds of persecution.”So from now on, if the state wants a future for Turkey — if they want Turkey to be a good environment for everyone — they must stop all this,” he said. “The state must also take a step” to match the symbolic operation to destroy PKK weapons in Iraq.”Turkey has won,” Erdogan said Saturday, a day after the PKK’s symbolic destruction of weapons signalling the start of the disarmament process.”Eighty-six million citizens have won,” he added.While he has opened a peace process with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers’ Party, he has also continued his crackdown on opposition parties.The government has arrested hundreds of members of the CHP, a social-democratic, secular party descended from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The main opposition force to Erdogan, it is rising in the polls.”Since the beginning of the peace process, Turkey has become a much more authoritarian country,” said political analyst Berk Esen.”The disarmament of a terrorist organization should, or could, lead to democratization and social peace, but it probably won’t.”- Crackdown on opposition -Those arrested include the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the party’s likely candidate in the next presidential elections, and the mayors of other major cities who took power when CHP made major gains in March 2024 local elections.Accused of “corruption”, they deny the charges against them.The crackdown has also hit opposition media outlets, such as the Sozcu channel. It was forced into silence after 16 fines and suspensions since January — “one every two weeks”, its director, Ozgur Cakmakci, noted Tuesday evening as lights went out.”There is little doubt that there is an intention to liquidate opposition channels as part of an authoritarian project,” said Erol Onderoglu, the Turkish representative of Reporters Without Borders.On Saturday morning, before the plenary session of his AKP party, Erdogan sought to be reassuring.”We know what we are doing. No one should worry, be afraid, or question anything. Everything we are doing is for Turkey, for our future and our independence,” he insisted.