Israeli settlers burn, vandalise Palestinian homes on Christmas Eve

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Syrian authorities have arrested a senior Islamic State group official in the Damascus region in a joint operation with a US-led international coalition, a security official said on Wednesday.

Taha al-Zoubi, also known as Abu Omar Tabiya, an IS leader in Damascus, was detained with several of his men, General Ahmad al-Dalati was reported as saying by state news agency SANA.

The arrest came less than two weeks after a December 13 attack killed two US soldiers and a US civilian that Washington said was carried out by a lone IS gunman in central Syria's Palmyra.

"Our specialised units, in cooperation with the General Intelligence Directorate and and International Coalition forces, carried out a precise security operation targeting" an IS hideout, Dalati said.

On December 20, a Syria monitor said that five IS members were killed in US strikes in retaliation for the December 13 attack.

Fourteen countries, including France, Britain, and Germany, condemned on Wednesday Israel's recent approval of new illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

"We, States of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom condemn the approval by the Israeli security cabinet of 19 new settlements in the occupied West Bank," said a joint statement released by the French foreign ministry.

"We recall our clear opposition to any form of annexation and to the expansion of settlement policies," it added.

On Sunday, Israel's far-right and extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the authorities had greenlit the settlements, saying the move was aimed at preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state.

In their statement, the countries stressed such unilateral actions "violate international law" and risk undermining a fragile ceasefire in Gaza as mediators push for the implementation of the second phase of the truce.

Israeli forces on Wednesday evening blocked all access to the occupied West Bank village of Madama, located south of the city of Nablus.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported, citing local sources, that Israeli forces forced their way into the village and used tear gas on civilians. 

The village has faced several Israeli raids in recent months, with attacks often resulting in victims needing to seek treatment at the hospital. 

Israeli settlers on Wednesday evening set fire and vandalised several Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank, Hebrew-language media reported. 

The homes were targeted on Christmas Eve, with violent settlers targeting areas such as al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya as well as other locations in the Ramallah municipality. 

According to footage published by the Ramallah municipality, the settlers defaced one building belonging to Palestinians, with the word "revenge" in Hebrew. 

Hamas has further denied involvement in a blast in Rafah that injured an Israeli soldier, saying the explosion took place in an area under full Israeli control.

Israeli opposition lawmakers slammed on Wednesday the establishment of a commission of inquiry into October 7 backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, with dozens of MPs tearing up the draft bill.

The opposition in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, has been calling for an independent probe into shortcomings in both the lead-up and response to the 2023 Hamas attack, wary that the commission of inquiry would be subject to political influence.

Approved Wednesday in a preliminary reading by 53 votes to 48, the bill must undergo further readings in the Knesset and a final vote before it becomes legislation.

Syrian state media said three people were killed Wednesday in clashes with security forces in coastal Latakia province, the heartland of the country's Alawite minority community.

"Three members of remnants of the former regime were killed after clashes with internal security forces" outside the city of Jableh, state television said.

State news agency SANA had earlier reported "clashes with a group of wanted outlaws" in the area, and said an unspecified number of security personnel were wounded.Thr

Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi has said on X that an Israeli soldier was wounded in Rafah by unexploded Israeli bombs left behind in the Palestinian territory.

Mardawi said mediators had been informed of the incident by the Palestinian group.

Israel accused Hamas of breaking the ceasefire by wounding the soldier, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying in a statement that Israel would "respond accordingly".

Israel has carried out hundreds of attacks on Gaza since the start of the ceasefire in October, killing scores of civilians.

Turkey said on Wednesday the black box from a private jet that killed the head of Libya's armed forces and his four aides would be analysed in a neutral country.

"The analysis of the voice recorder and flight data recorder to determine the cause of the aircraft's crash will be carried out in a neutral country" following an initial examination, Turkey's transport minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on X.

Israeli aircraft carried out air strikes on the city of Rafah and the eastern areas of Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip early on Wednesday.

Israeli army fire killed at least one Palestinian and wounded nine others on Wednesday in attacks across northern and southern Gaza, according to local media reports.

A Palestinian teenager, identified as Ayoub Abdel Ayesh Nasr, was shot dead in Jabalia, while two others were wounded, the Wafa news agency reported, citing medical sources. Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City later confirmed it had received the body of one person killed and nine wounded, including several children.

Multiple media outlets said those targeted were in an area inside the so-called “Yellow Line”, which marks parts of Gaza that remain under Israeli military control despite the ceasefire agreement. The attacks reportedly took place beyond areas of declared Israeli troop deployment.

Further south, Israeli artillery shelling and machine-gun fire struck Bani Suheila, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Separately, Israeli forces carried out night raids on the city of Rafah hours earlier, continuing attacks across the besieged enclave.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel will spend 350 billion shekels ($109.947bn) over the next decade to reduce reliance on foreign arms.

The Israeli army demolished on Wednesday the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a stabbing and shooting attack that killed an Israeli earlier this year, the military said.

Israeli army bulldozers entered the village of Bazzaryah in the occupied West Bank, destroying the family home of one of the attackers after the occupants had been forced out.

Hazem Yassine, head of the Bazzaryah municipal council, denounced what he called a "heinous crime".

He told AFP that Israeli forces had sealed off the village's entrances since dawn in preparation for the demolition.

"Schools were closed as a precaution," he said, adding that the assailant's family had moved out around a month ago after being notified of the decision to demolish the house.

Israel regularly demolishes the homes of suspected attackers - a practice denounced by rights groups as a form of collective punishment that leaves families homeless.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone call with Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah on Wednesday, the Turkish Presidency's Head of Communications, Burhanettin Duran, said.

“President Erdoğan expressed his condolences and deep sorrow over the loss of lives due to the crash of the aircraft carrying Libya's Chief of General Staff, General Mohammed al-Haddad, and his entourage,” Duran said in a statement.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday met with Hamas political bureau officials in Ankara to discuss the ceasefire in Gaza and advancing the agreement to its second phase, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.

The source said the Hamas officials told Fidan that they had fulfilled their requirements as part of the ceasefire deal, but that Israel's continued targeting of Gaza aimed to prevent the agreement from moving to the next phase.

The Hamas members also said humanitarian aid entering Gaza was not sufficient, and that goods like medication, equipment for housing, and fuel were needed, the source added. 

The Israeli army said Wednesday that it had identified a Hamas financial official it killed two weeks ago in a strike on the Gaza Strip.

Abdel Hay Zaqut, a financial official in Hamas's armed wing, on December 13 in the same strike that killed military commander Raed Saad.

The Israeli army's Arabic-language spokesperson, Avichay Adraee, said on Wednesday that Zaqut was killed while he was in a vehicle alongside Raed Saad in "a joint operation by the Israeli army and the Shin Bet", Israel's internal security agency.

Israel carried out the attack despite a ceasefire in place since October.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday ordered the construction of 126 settlement units in the occupied West Bank's Jenin governorate, WAFA reported.

The planned settlement aims to revive the illegal Israeli settlement of Sanur, which was evacuated in 2005.

Search and recovery teams on Wednesday morning intensified their operations at the site of a plane crash that killed Libya’s military chief and other high-level officers, working to secure the area and locate the aircraft’s flight recorders after a night of heavy rain and fog, Turkey’s state-run news agency said.

The private jet carrying Gen. Muhammad Ali Ahmad al-Haddad, four other officers and three crew members crashed in Turkey on Tuesday after taking off from the capital, Ankara, killing everyone on board. Libyan officials said the cause of the crash was a technical malfunction on the plane.

Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) have reiterated their refusal to hand over their weapons to Israel, accusing Israel of deliberately stalling the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad deputy secretary general Muhammad al-Hindi said Israel was dragging its feet and had no intention of advancing to the second phase of the agreement.

Speaking to Al Jazeera Mubasher on Tuesday, al-Hindi said that “the Palestinian people’s weapons cannot be handed over to the occupation,” adding that Israel’s delay reflects an unwillingness to meet its obligations under the deal.

He said the second phase would require Israel’s full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, something he said Israeli leaders are seeking to avoid.

A similar position was voiced by Hamas. Hamas political bureau member Osama Hamdan rejected calls to “disarm the resistance” in comments to Al-Masirah TV.

“The enemy does not want to move to the second phase, because it means a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and the resistance remaining there,” Hamdan said.

Israeli settlers set fire to a home early on Wednesday in the village of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, in a fresh escalation of settler violence that coincided with house demolitions in occupied East Jerusalem and incursions at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Mohammad Malash, a medic with al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya ambulance services, told The New Arab that settlers attacked the home of Jadal Qaddour, a US-based Palestinian. The house, which is uninhabited and located on the outskirts of the village, was torched, causing parts of it to burn.

Residents discovered the attack later in the morning and found racist slogans sprayed in Hebrew on the walls of the property.

In a separate incident, local sources said Israeli forces demolished two homes on Wednesday in the town of Jabal al-Mukabber, southeast of occupied Jerusalem. The homes belonged to brothers Mahmoud and Wasim Mashahra.

Meanwhile, groups of settlers stormed the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli forces, carrying out provocative tours and performing Talmudic rituals.

Elsewhere, settlers also raided the Bedouin community of Shalal al-Auja, north of Jericho in the eastern West Bank, deliberately releasing their livestock among residents’ homes in an apparent attempt to harass and intimidate local families