Tag Archives: Violence

Abbas Offers To Meet Netanyahu

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas gestures as he delivers a speech in the West Bank city of Bethlehem

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday he was working to stop Palestinian knife attacks and other street violence against Israel and had offered to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to rekindle peace efforts.

The remarks appeared to be an effort by the Western-backed Abbas to turn the tables on Israel, which has cast him as responsible for the diplomatic deadlock and the surge of bloodshed.

Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Abbas gave rare details on his domestic security drives, a touchy matter as many Palestinians deem such moves collaboration with their enemy.

“Our security forces go into the schools to search pupils’ bags and see if they have knives. You don’t know this,” he said.

“In one school, we found 70 boys and girls who were carrying knives. We took the knives and spoke to them and said: ‘This is a mistake. We do not want you to kill and be killed. We want you to live, and for the other side to live as well.'”

Abbas’s administration and Israel coordinate security in the occupied West Bank despite the stalling two years ago of U.S.-sponsored negotiations on Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu says he is open to renewing talks and that Abbas has been avoiding these while inciting violence with his rhetoric against Israel.

But Abbas told Channel 2 that the onus was on Netanyahu.

“I will meet with him, at any time. And I suggested, by the way, for him to meet,” the Palestinian leader said in English.

Asked what became of that overture, Abbas said: “No, no – it’s a secret. He can tell you about it.”

Netanyahu’s office had no immediate response.

Since October, Palestinian stabbings, car-rammings and gun ambushes have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens. At least 190 Palestinians, 129 of whom Israel says were assailants, have been killed by its forces. Many others were shot in clashes.

Abbas’ Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank under 1993 interim peace deals. Israeli forces now freely operate in PA areas, something Abbas described as sapping his credibility at home. He said he was willing to take action against Palestinians that Israeli intelligence deems a threat.

“If he (Netanyahu) gives me responsibility and tells me that he believes in (the) two-state solution and we sit around the table to talk about (the) two-state solution, this will give my people hope, and nobody dares to go and stab or shoot or do anything here or there,” Abbas said.

Netanyahu has said he would favor the creation of a Palestinian state as long as Israel’s terms are met such as its security needs. Whether Abbas could vouchsafe the Gaza Strip is in doubt, as it is under the de facto control of armed Hamas Islamists who oppose permanent coexistence with Israel.

For his part, Netanyahu has been hazy about whether he would remove Jewish settlements in the West Bank to make way for the Palestinians. He heads a pro-settlement coalition the includes one ultra-nationalist party opposed to Palestinian statehood.

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Drought Protest Turns Violent

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine police opened fire as a protest by thousands of rice farmers who lost their crops turned violent on Friday, killing one and wounding about a dozen, a leader of a farming group said.

About 6,000 farmers blocked a portion of the main highway in North Cotabato province on the southern island of Mindanao, demanding government assistance after drought linked by some to El Nino hit hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland.

“Loud bursts of gunfire erupted,” Norma Capuyan, leader of a farmers’ group, told reporters. “There was heavy volume of fire. We ran to a church compound and the police surrounded us.”

A farmer died on the spot and about a dozen others were wounded in the legs and shoulders, Capuyan said, adding the police first tried to disperse them with water cannon but started shooting when they held their ground.

North Cotabato Governor Emmylou Mendoza said about 20 police were wounded when the farmers attacked them with sticks and stones. She said the first shot was fired by the protesters.

The police issued a statement saying it was investigating.

“Any violation of national police rules and regulations shall be meted (out) with the appropriate penalty,” national police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wilben Mayor said in a statement.

The protest began on Wednesday when farmers barricaded the highway in Kidapawan, demanding a dialogue with the governor and the release of 15,000 sacks of rice she had promised to them as relief.

The agriculture ministry said more than 300,000 hectares of farmland had been affected by drought, causing loses of about 5.3 billion pesos ($115.09 million) in rice and corn. It said the effects of El Nino were minimal.

(Reporting by Manuel Mogato and Enrico dela Cruz; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Boko Haram Targets Civilians

A member of a civilian vigilante group holds a hunting rifle while a woman pumps water

KERAWA, Cameroon (Reuters) – Adama Simila wears a knife tied to his belt by a piece of rope, his only protection against Boko Haram, the Nigerian Islamist insurgents who have repeatedly targeted his home town in remote northern Cameroon.

While the threat once came from heavily armed, battle-hardened jihadists crossing from neighboring Nigeria, today Simila knows he is more likely to die at the hands of a teenage girl strapped with explosives.

“We’re here to look out for suicide bombers,” said the 31-year-old, a member of a local civilian defense force in the town of Kerawa.

After watching its influence spread during a six-year campaign that has killed around 15,000 people according to the U.S. military, Nigeria has now united with its neighbors to stamp out Boko Haram.

A regional offensive last year drove the insurgents from most of their traditional strongholds, denying them their dream of an Islamic emirate in northeastern Nigeria. An 8,700-strong regional force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria is seeking to finish the job.

Now, increasingly on the back foot, Boko Haram is retaliating with a deadly guerrilla campaign against civilians, and ordinary people like Simila have become the last line of defense.

“I’m not scared. They are people, we are also people. We must die to live,” said Simila, who was at the Kerawa market in September when two girls detonated themselves, killing 19 people and injuring 143 others. A nearly identical bombing at the same market followed in January.

Outside Nigeria, Cameroon has been hardest hit by Boko Haram, which now operates out of bases in the Mandara Mountains, Sambisa Forest and Lake Chad — areas straddling the borders between Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and Niger.

Since August 2014, the sect has carried out 336 attacks in Cameroon, according to the Cameroonian army, which has lost 57 of its own men while defending the north.

Of 34 recorded suicide bombings killing 174 people, 80 percent were carried out by girls and young women aged 14 to 24 years.

Girls abused as sex slaves by the group are psychologically damaged and therefore more vulnerable, the army says. Boko Haram also uses girls because they are thought less likely to arouse suspicion, although that may be changing now.

“The goal now is to stop Boko Haram incursions into villages, stop them from planting IEDs (home-made bombs), and stop suicide bombings,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Felix Tetcha, a senior officer in the army’s operation against Boko Haram.

Cameroon has thrown vast resources into protecting the north.

In total nearly 10,000 of its troops are deployed against Boko Haram. The army’s Rapid Intervention Brigade (BIR), comprised of its most professional, best equipped soldiers, patrols a high-risk 400-km (250-mile) stretch of the border with Nigeria.

The U.S. military backs them with equipment, training and intelligence gathered from American drones flown out of a base in the town of Garoua. A Reuters reporter saw a small American military camp inside another BIR base in nearby Maroua.

Still, the terrain is mountainous and Boko Haram has rigged many roads with explosives designed to kill soldiers. Army officers are convinced that some fighters from Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to Islamic State last year, have been trained at IS camps in Libya.

Armed incursions by Boko Haram fighters have dropped. But the army does not have enough soldiers to deploy in every town in northern Cameroon, and suicide bombers strike regularly, often several times in a single week.

“The border is under control, but it’s still very porous,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Emile Nlaté Ebalé, head of operations and logistics for the BIR’s mission in the north.

“EVERYBODY SUFFERS IN THIS PLACE”

Faced with such an asymmetrical threat, Cameroon’s army has turned to so-called vigilance committees for help.

As the blazing midday sun beat down on Kerawa, Bouba Ahmada walked along a dry, scrub-lined creek bed, an ancient flintlock musket slung around his neck.

“Here is Cameroon, over there is Nigeria,” he said, gesturing towards the abandoned homes just across the dusty expanse. “It’s empty. Only Boko Haram stays there.”

Made up of men and boys armed with machetes, home-made rifles or bows and arrows, these self-defense forces have the blessing of the local government.

They accompany the army on patrols and intelligence gathering missions, question travelers, and denounce to the military anyone deemed suspect.

Last week they intercepted two female suicide bombers and handed them over to the army before they were able to detonate.

“We are not 100 percent dependent on this information, but this information is crucial,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Tetcha, who is not only defending Cameroon but also a growing number of Nigerians.

Close to the border sits the U.N.-run Minawao camp, home to nearly 57,000 refugees who have fled Boko Haram in Nigeria.

“Everybody suffers in this place,” said James Zapania, a 24-year-old camp resident from Gwoza, Nigeria. “We’re not worried about Boko Haram coming here, we’re worried about food.”

Refugees like Zapania often receive a chilly welcome from suspicious local villagers, many of whom view them as collaborators or even underground Boko Haram fighters.

According to one Cameroonian officer, the army has removed a number of individuals from Minawao for “activities that were not in line with the behavior of a normal refugee”.

Suspicion is everywhere. And while Boko Haram infiltrators make up only a tiny portion of fleeing refugees, many, including the Cameroonian military, fear that desperation provides fertile ground for recruitment.

“We need to act quickly. There are young people with no work who could be vulnerable. When people are hungry, they are easily approached,” said Colonel Didier Badjeck, a Cameroonian military spokesman.

(Editing by Joe Bavier and Giles Elgood)

Palestinians turn to makeshift guns in escalation of street violence

By Dan Williams and Ismael Khader

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – During previous rounds of Palestinian violence, Israeli raids on the occupied West Bank would turn up small arsenals of military assault rifles. Now hauls more often include what look like toy guns and the tools required to make them lethal.

After years of seizures that have choked the supply of unlicensed M-16s and Kalashnikovs in the territory and raised black-market prices, some Palestinians are turning to improvised firearms to carry out street attacks on Israelis.

Five months into a series of killings by Palestinians that have mainly involved stabbings and car-rammings, some are stepping up the assaults by using such makeshift guns.

This escalation could pose problems for authorities on both sides, who are seeking to keep the bloodshed from spilling over into another uprising that could draw in armed Palestinian factions and trigger sweeping Israeli crackdowns.

The shift was illustrated by the haul from an Israeli raid on a foundry in the occupied West Bank this week; photos released by Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service showed a sniper rifle held together by duct tape, a Wild West-style long gun with a silencer welded on, as well as a lathe machine tool.

The foundry may be a testament to the effectiveness of past raids, by both Israeli and Palestinian security services.

“A genuine M-16 now costs 60,000 to 70,000 shekels ($15,000-$18,000) on the street, whereas an improvised gun can cost as little as 2,000 shekels ($512),” one Palestinian with knowledge of the trade told Reuters. “For a young person looking to carry out an attack with limited resources, the choice is obvious.”

The crudity of the cobbled-together guns may offer scant comfort to Palestinian and Israeli security officials.

Palestinian leaders and international powers have already said Israel has often used excessive force against assailants, many of them youths, though Israel has rejected this, saying it has prevented lethal attacks on civilians and security forces.

Security experts cautioned that Israel was likely to be even less restrained should its forces or citizens come under regular attack with guns, regardless of how lethal they are.

“It’s one thing for a soldier to face someone who is trying to stab him with scissors, quite another to face a gunman – he can never know whether if there is more ammunition, if the gun is still a threat, so he is likelier to shoot,” said Amy Ayalon, who headed the Shin Bet between 1996 and 2000, when the last Palestinian revolt against Israel erupted.

“So the response, on site, tends to be harsher, and the political echelon will be forced to back it up.”

OVER 200 KILLED

Palestinian attackers have killed 28 Israelis and a U.S. citizen since October. Israeli security forces have killed at least 172 Palestinians, 114 of whom Israel says were assailants, while most others were shot dead during violent protests.

Tensions have been stoked by various factors including a dispute over Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque compound and the failure of several rounds of peace talks to secure the Palestinians an independent state in Israeli-occupied territory.

Palestinian leaders have said that with no breakthrough on the horizon, desperate youngsters see no future ahead. Israel says young Palestinians are being incited to violence by their leaders and by Islamist groups calling for Israel’s destruction.

Two Palestinians who killed an Israeli policewoman and wounded another in Jerusalem last month before they were shot dead were armed with improvised guns known as “Carlos”, Israeli authorities said.

Carlos – simple knock-offs of Swedish-made Carl Gustav machine-pistols made in metal foundries – are among the cheapest makeshift guns to buy on the black market, say the authorities.

According to one Israeli security source, the relatively low Israeli death toll in the attack was partly due to the gunmen’s failure to fire rapidly, possibly due to the Carlos jamming.

Israel is also holding two Palestinian brothers from the West Bank city of Hebron for four gun attacks that wounded two soldiers and two civilians. The Shin Bet says they used a Carlo and an improvised sniper rifle with a silencer fashioned out of an oil can as instructed by a video they found on the Internet.

A spokesman for the Palestinian Security Services in the West Bank said they were aware makeshift weapons were being manufactured there.

“Making weapons locally is common everywhere in the world and we are moving against the sources of such weapons because they represent a risk,” Adnan Al-Dmairi told Reuters.

Improvised guns can be air-rifles converted to shoot real bullets rather than pellets, the Palestinian source said. According to one Shin Bet official, some West Bank armourers cannibalize parts from broken M-16s or Kalashnikovs and reassemble them as workable composites, with missing components manufactured in private workshops. These can sell for around 5,000 shekels ($1,280) on the Palestinian black market.

“Obviously such weapons will not be as reliable as a complete factory-made gun,” the Shin Bet official told Reuters. “Most of the recent gun attacks employed improvised firearms. It appears that in many cases they malfunctioned.”

(Writing by Dan Williams; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Pravin Char)

UNICEF: 1 in 8 Children Born into Conflict Zones

One in every eight global births this year has occurred in a conflict zone, according to UNICEF.

The United Nations Children’s Fund said Thursday that more than 16 million children entered the world in a territory marred by conflict in 2015, which amounted to one every two seconds.

The recently published statistics provided an alarming glimpse into the effects that conflict have on children worldwide, as well as the role that violence has played in the ongoing migrant crisis.

UNICEF reported that more than 250 million children — about a ninth of the global child population — are currently living in conflict zones. Another 200,000 sought asylum in the European Union between January and September of this year as their families fled violence.

The world hasn’t seen a level of displacement like this since World War II, UNICEF said.

The Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research, which analyzes conflict throughout the globe, reported there were 46 highly violent conflicts in 2014, the most recent year for which data is available. That’s up a tick from 45 in 2013, and far ahead of the 24 such conflicts of 2005.

Some of the notable nations currently experiencing conflict are Afghanistan, Iran, South Sudan, Yemen and Syria, where an ongoing civil war has driven millions of people from their homes. But children born into those and other conflict zones face additional challenges beyond violence.

UNICEF reported that more than 500 million children live in extremely flood-prone areas, while another 160 million live in areas known to experience high or severe droughts. Healthwise, children in conflict zones are more likely to die before the age of 5 and they also have a higher risk of experiencing extreme stress, which can stunt their cognitive and emotional development.

A Teacher at a Jewish School Stabbed in France by ISIS Supporters

On Wednesday night, a teacher at a Jewish school in the southern French city of Marseille was stabbed by three people who yelled anti-Semitic and pro-ISIS obscenities. The teacher survived the attack.

Reuters reports that the three attackers were on two scooters and approached the man in the street. One of them wore an Islamic State t-shirt while another showed pictures of Mohamed Merah – a man who killed 7 people in France in 2012 before being shot by police – on his phone to the victim. They stabbed the teacher three times in the arm and leg.

“The three people insulted, threatened and then stabbed their victim in the arm and leg. They were interrupted by the arrival of a car and fled,” Marseille prosecutor Brice Robin told Reuters.

BBC News reports that police are looking for the attackers.

Since the attacks in Paris last Friday that led to the deaths of 129 people, France has been in a state of emergency.

Three Israelis Killed in Latest Attacks in Tel Aviv and West Bank

Israel police told BBC News that at least three Israelis were killed Thursday morning in attacks by Palestinians that took place in Tel Aviv and the occupied West Bank.

Two of the victims were stabbed to death by a Palestinian man at the entrance of a shop in Tel Aviv. The shop also functions as a synagogue. Hours later, a second attack killed another Israeli in a drive by shooting incident.

So far, an official death toll has not been released as multiple news agencies including Haaretz and Fox News are reporting 5 deaths while other agencies are reporting only 2 or 3.

Police officials told Reuters that the first attacker was apprehended.

Dozens of Palestinians and 15 Israelis have been killed since the new wave of violence began in two months ago. Most of the Palestinian deaths were from attackers that were shot by police or were killed in clashes with troops in the West Bank.

Man with Sword Attacks Swedish School; 2 People Killed

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Bjorn Larsson Rosvall/TT News Agency

On Thursday, a masked man with a sword attacked a Swedish school in Trollhattan, killing one teacher and one student.

USA Today reported that the student died from his injuries at the hospital, and the teacher died at the scene of the crime after being stabbed. Another teacher and student were injured in the attack and reportedly are in serious condition at the local hospital in Trollhattan, according to CNN. The attacker was fatally shot by police and later died in the hospital.

“This is a dark day for Sweden,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. “My thoughts go out to the victims and their families, pupils and staff, and the entire community that has been affected. There are no words to describe what they are going through right now.”

The incident started in a cafe section of the school that serves around 500 students ranging between the ages of six and fifteen. According to NBC News, students thought the masked man was part of a Halloween-related prank or event; students even took pictures with the man before the attack. Afterward, the man began knocking on doors in the hallway and stabbing whoever answered.

At this time police are investigating a possible motive, and they are not ruling out the possibility of this being an act of terrorism.

U.N. Chief to Visit Israel and Palestine to Calm Tensions

In an attempt to calm tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be visiting the area, despite the waves of violence that has plagued the area for about a month.

The violence began about a month ago over tensions concerning policy changes to the Temple Mount, a holy site for both Jews and Muslims. Then stabbings began happening in Arab neighborhoods East of Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. The escalation in violence has prompted some to believe that a third Palestinian uprising may begin.

On Tuesday there were two more reported incidents. Israeli forces shot a Palestinian man after he stabbed an Israeli military officer. In the West Bank, a separate incident occurred where an Israeli man was killed after being run over by a truck. The Washington Post reports that Palestinians were throwing rocks at the man’s car. The Israeli man then exited his vehicle and began hitting Palestinian vehicles with a stick. He hit a passing truck that then ran over the man. The driver did turn himself in, claiming that the man’s death was the result of him trying to swerve out of the way.

Ban Ki-moon released a video prior to his Tuesday visit, asking for peace on both sides. During his visit Ban will be visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem.

Since the violence began, 40 Palestinians, including attackers, and 8 Israelis have been killed, according to BBC News.

Israel Increases Security to Battle Escalating Violence

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is keeping his promise to try and combat the escalating violence in Israel, by deploying extra soldiers in cities across the country and setting up roadblocks in Palestinian neighborhoods.

“Today we … decide on a series of vigorous steps in our fight against the sources of terrorism and incitement,” the Prime Minister said. “They will be implemented as quickly as possible.”

In an overnight session, Israel’s security cabinet authorized the security measures after Palestinians with guns and knives killed three Israelis and injured several others on Tuesday. The approved measures included increasing the ranks of the Israeli police, 300 new security guards for public transportation, and authorization given to police to surround “centers of friction and incitement” in Jerusalem.

Additional measures include “terrorists” having their permanent resident rights revoked and the government confiscating their property. Palestinian neighborhoods will be cordoned off, and Israeli authorities will have the ability to demolish homes of attackers with no rebuilding allowed.

“We’re taking things step by step, stage by stage,” said police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld. “We’re working carefully and cautiously in order to prevent and respond to any further attacks today in Jerusalem.”

Palestinian officials called the increase in security a collective punishment and condemned Israel’s actions. Human Rights Watch also disagreed with the new security measures.

“Locking down east Jerusalem neighborhoods will infringe upon the freedom of movement of all Palestinian residents rather than being a narrowly tailored response to a specific concern,” said Sari Bashi of Human Rights Watch.

Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he would be visiting the Middle East very soon to help calm the situation, but he did not state when exactly he plans to go.

Some have suggested that the violence is part of a third Palestinian uprising, also known as an intifada. Others dismiss this theory, saying it is unrest that is due to the absence of an progress toward peace.

“We’ve tried negotiations and it didn’t work,” a Palestinian youth in the West Bank city of Hebron told CNN. “So now we will fight.”

And the Israeli government is not going to give in.

“Israel will settle accounts with the murderers, those who attempt murder, and all those who assist them,” Netanyahu said. “Not only will they not enjoy their privileges, but we will exact from them the full cost.

“Anyone who raises his hand to harm us — will pay dearly. And we will not hesitate to use all means at our disposal to restore peace to the cities of Israel.”