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Josh Staph fears the fun-packed shelves of his toy warehouse might start looking joyless in the months ahead, with made-in-China flying discs and model gliders grounded -– like much of his product line –- by Donald Trump’s tariffs.”Things have ground to a halt,” said Staph, chief executive of Duncan Toys Company, which has a warehouse …

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On deserted university grounds in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian children run outside nearly empty buildings, their playground after being driven from their homes by a major Israeli “counter-terrorism” operation.Between a stadium and flower fields where goats now graze, the children play to escape boredom. They have no school to go to since the Israeli military ordered residents to leave the Jenin refugee camp more than two months ago.Mohammed Shalabi, a 53-year-old father who is among several hundred Palestinians sheltering at the university campus in Jenin city, recalled the day he heard that special Israeli forces were inside the camp.”Everyone knows that when the army enters, it destroys the infrastructure, even the cars,” said the municipal worker.Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced from the northern West Bank since Israel launched the offensive dubbed “Iron Wall” on January 21 in the area.Shalabi first left Jenin camp for nearby villages before authorities offered accommodation at the now vacant premises of the Arab American University, one of the leading institutions in the West Bank.Shalabi said he has avoided “discussing all of this” with his 80-year-old father to protect his fragile health.”But he understands, and sometimes he cries, because he lived through the Nakba, and now this…” said Shalabi, referring to the mass displacement of Palestinians in the war that accompanied Israel’s creation in 1948.- No return -Now forced to leave their homes in the Jenin refugee camp, residents fear a repeat of the collective trauma they inherited.The United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, provides aid but recent Israeli legislation barring coordination with Israeli military authorities has complicated its work.The cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the West Bank, lacks the funds to help.Many international organisations are already focusing much of their efforts in the Gaza Strip, a separate Palestinian territory where the Israel-Hamas war since October 2023 has created a dire humanitarian crisis.”No one is interested in what’s happening here,” said a social worker who often visits the displacement shelter at the university to hand out blankets, food or grocery money.Public services like rubbish collection are rare or virtually non-existent. Many displaced residents have asked for a temporary school to be set up for the children but to no avail.Most shops are closed, and the nearest supermarket is a 20-minute walk away.All the while, Israeli army bulldozers operate in the Jenin camp, leaving behind a trail of destruction.”They told us we no longer have a home, and that we won’t be returning to the camp,” said displaced resident Umm Majd.Some camp residents who attempted to go back say they were turned away.In early March, an UNRWA official spoke of growing concerns that “the reality being created on the ground aligns with the vision of annexation of the West Bank.”- ‘Day by day’ -The new, makeshift camp has come into being on the university campus in what appears like a dystopian landscape.The campus buildings carry names that give them an international and prestigious air, like Casa Bella, Concorde and Dubai.But many of them, not long ago busy with students, are abandoned.Others have become home to families of the displaced who now cram into tiny studio apartments that served as campus housing.The families cook on gas stoves and sleep on foam mattresses that have to be put away every morning to create space.”We have 20 percent of the life we had in the camp,” said Umm Majd, sharing a two-person room with three others.Farmers bring goats to graze in fields around the campus.Many of the students that used to fill the university halls and dorms before the Gaza war were Palestinian citizens of Israel, who generally stopped crossing into the West Bank for their studies.Eateries in the area are either closed down or being refurbished, the sign of economic hardships across the West Bank that have worsened throughout the Gaza war.”We live day by day. There’s no outlook because of the lack of work and resources,” said Ahmad Abu Jos, 30.His baby boy Mustafa is learning to walk in the tiny apartment space, filled with the smell of detergents and cooking.The boy’s mother, Rama Abu Jos, said: “We left the camp, but not of our own free will. We hope to return home. No one likes life here.”

Israel’s government cancelled visas for 27 French left-wing lawmakers and local officials two days before they were to start a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Sunday, the group said.The action came only days after Israel stopped two British members of parliament from the governing Labour party from entering the country.It also came amidst diplomatic tensions after President Emmanuel Macron said France would soon recognise a Palestinian state. Macron has in turn sought to pressure Netanyahu over conditions in Gaza amid the Israel-Hamas war.Israel’s interior ministry said visas for the 27 had been cancelled under a law that allows authorities to ban people who could act against the state of Israel.Seventeen members of the group, from France’s Ecologist and Communist parties, said they had been victims of “collective punishment” by Israel and called on Macron to intervene.They said in a statement that they had been invited on a five-day trip by the French consulate in Jerusalem.They had intended to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of their mission to “strengthen international cooperation and the culture of peace”, they added. “For the first time, two days before our departure, the Israeli authorities cancelled our entry visas that had been approved one month ago,” they said.”We want to understand what led to this sudden decision, which resembles collective punishment,” said the group.- ‘Major rupture’ -The delegation included National Assembly deputies Francois Ruffin, Alexis Corbiere and Julie Ozenne from the Ecologist party, Communist deputy Soumya Bourouaha and Communist senator Marianne Margate.The other members were left-wing town mayors and local lawmakers.The statement denounced the ban as a “major rupture in diplomatic ties”.”Deliberately preventing elected officials and parliamentarians from travelling cannot be without consequences,” the group said, demanding a meeting with Macron and action by the government to ensure Israel let them into the country.The group said their parties had for decades called for recognition of a Palestinian state, which Macron said last week could come at an international conference in June.Israeli authorities this month detained British members of parliament Yuan Yang and Abtisam Mohamed at Tel Aviv airport and deported them, citing the same reason. Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the action “unacceptable”.In February, Israel stopped two left-wing European parliament deputies, Franco-Palestinian Rima Hassan and Lynn Boylan from Ireland, from entering.Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted with fury to France’s possible recognition of a Palestinian state. He said establishing a Palestinian state next to Israel would be a “huge reward for terrorism”.

An Israeli military report on the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza admitted Sunday that mistakes led to their deaths and that a field commander would be dismissed.But a probe found no evidence of “indiscriminate fire” by troops and maintained that some of those killed were militants. The Palestine Red Crescent denounced the report as “full of lies”.The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near the southern Gaza city of Rafah early on March 23, days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.The incident drew international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk.”The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident,” a summary of the investigation said.Reserve Major General Yoav Har-Even, who led the investigation, accepted that troops had committed an error.”We’re saying it was a mistake. We don’t think it’s a daily mistake,” he told journalists when asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military.Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area.OCHA described it as a mass grave.Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has said an autopsy of the victims revealed that “all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill”.The military rejected his accusation.”The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” the probe said, amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.”The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them,” it said, adding that six of the 15 were “identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists”.It had earlier said nine of those killed were militants.”The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the probe added, without providing evidence that six of the men were militants.Har-Even acknowledged that no weapons were found on the dead men.The Palestine Red Crescent rejected the investigation findings.”The report is full of lies. It is invalid and unacceptable, as it justifies the killing and shifts responsibility to a personal error in the field command when the truth is quite different,” spokesperson Nebal Farsakh told AFP.- ‘No attempt to conceal’ -After the incident, the army said its soldiers had fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles”. A spokesman later added that the vehicles had their lights off.But a video recovered from the cellphone of one slain aid worker, released by the Red Crescent, appeared to contradict the Israeli military’s account. The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing. The military acknowledged an operational failure by its forces to fully report the incident, but reiterated earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles “to prevent further harm”.”There was no attempt to conceal the event,” it said.”We don’t lie,” military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Sunday. The Red Crescent’s Farsakh, however, said her organisation was denied access to the site for five days.The military said a deputy commander “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”.- ‘Breach of orders’ -The military said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.In the second, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances”, the military said.”The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle’s passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire.”The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations”, the military said.The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops”.The UN said in April that after the team of first responders was killed, other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops. Another medic also survived, with the military confirming Sunday he was in custody.”Since the incident occurred by mistake, as the report claims, why does the occupation continue to detain the paramedic?” Farsakh asked, adding they were only informed he was being held days later by the Red Cross and that “the occupation has not yet clarified” where.

An Israeli military probe into the killing of 15 Palestinian emergency workers in Gaza admitted Sunday that mistakes led to their deaths and that a field commander would be dismissed.But the probe found no evidence of “indiscriminate fire” by the troops.The medics and other rescue workers were killed when responding to distress calls near the southern Gaza city of Rafah early on March 23, just days into Israel’s renewed offensive in the Hamas-run territory.The incident has drawn international condemnation, including concern about possible war crimes from UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.Germany had called for an urgent investigation and “accountability of the perpetrators.”The probe said six of the dead were Hamas militants, although no weapons were found.”The examination identified several professional failures, breaches of orders and a failure to fully report the incident,” the summary of the investigation said.Reserve Major General Yoav Har-Even, who led the investigation, accepted that troops involved in the incident had committed an error.”We’re saying it was a mistake. We don’t think it’s a daily mistake,” he told journalists when asked if he thought the incident represented a pervasive issue within the Israeli military.Those killed included eight Red Crescent staff members, six from the Gaza civil defence rescue agency and one employee of UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA and Palestinian rescuers.Their bodies were found about a week later, buried in the sand alongside their crushed vehicles near the shooting scene in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan area.OCHA described it as a mass grave.Younis al-Khatib, president of the Palestine Red Crescent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has said an autopsy of the victims revealed that “all the martyrs were shot in the upper part of their bodies, with the intent to kill”.The military rejected his accusation.”The examination found no evidence to support claims of execution or that of any of the deceased were bound before or after the shooting,” the probe said, amid allegations that some of the bodies had been found handcuffed.”The troops did not engage in indiscriminate fire but remained alert to respond to real threats identified by them,” it said, adding that six of the 15 were “identified in a retrospective examination as Hamas terrorists”.It had earlier said nine of those killed were militants.”The IDF (military) regrets the harm caused to uninvolved civilians,” the probe added, but did not provide evidence that six of the men were militants.Har-Even acknowledged that no weapons were found on the dead men.- ‘No attempt to conceal’ -Days after the incident, the army said its soldiers fired on “terrorists” approaching them in “suspicious vehicles”, with a spokesman later adding that the vehicles had their lights off.But a video recovered from the cellphone of one of the slain aid workers, released by the Red Crescent, appears to contradict the Israeli military’s account. The footage shows ambulances travelling with their headlights on and emergency lights flashing. The military acknowledged operational failure on the part of its troops to fully report the incident, but reiterated their earlier statements that Israeli troops buried the bodies and vehicles “to prevent further harm.””There was no attempt to conceal the event,” it said.”We don’t lie,” military spokesman Effie Defrin said on Sunday. The military said a deputy commander “will be dismissed from his position due to his responsibilities as the field commander in this incident and for providing an incomplete and inaccurate report during the debrief”.The military said there were three shooting incidents in the area on that day.- ‘Breach of orders’ -In the first, soldiers shot at what they believed to be a Hamas vehicle.In the second incident, around an hour later, troops fired “on suspects emerging from a fire truck and ambulances very close to the area in which the troops were operating, after perceiving an immediate and tangible threat,” the military said.”The deputy battalion commander assessed the vehicles as employed by Hamas forces, who arrived to assist the first vehicle’s passengers. Under this impression and sense of threat, he ordered to open fire.”The third incident saw the troops firing at a UN vehicle “due to operational errors in breach of regulations,” the military said.The probe determined that the fire in the first two incidents resulted from an “operational misunderstanding by the troops.””The third incident involved a breach of orders during a combat setting,” it added.The UN said in early April that after the team of first responders was killed, other emergency and aid teams were hit one after another over several hours while searching for their missing colleagues.Mundhir Abed, a medic from the Red Crescent Society who survived the attack, told AFP earlier he was beaten and interrogated by Israeli troops. Another medic also survived and the military confirmed Sunday he was in its custody.