ATFP News Roundup October 12, 2016
News:
A 20-year-old Palestinian [1] was shot and killed by Israeli forces Tuesday night during clashes that erupted in the town of Silwan in occupied East Jerusalem just south of the Old City, amid ongoing violent police raids in the Jerusalem area. (Ma'an)
The Palestinian Authority decided [2] that municipal councils that had resigned from office in order to run in local elections would return to their original offices until the recently postponed elections were resumed. (Ma'an)
Dozens of Palestinians [3] were shot and injured by live ammunition or rubber-coated steel bullets in the town of al-Ram in the Jerusalem district of the occupied West Bank Wednesday morning. (Ma'an)
Residents of the Palestinian refugee [4] camp Khan al-Shih in war-torn Syria southwest of Damascus city held a protest Tuesday condemning the bombardment of the camp and threats of heavier siege conditions. (Ma'an)
Israeli forces announced a series of closures [5]and heightened security operations throughout the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the larger Jerusalem district in anticipation of the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, according to Israeli police. (Ma'an)
German politicians [6] called on Wednesday for the 'hero refugees' who captured a fellow Syrian migrant suspected of planning a bomb attack on a Berlin airport to be honored with a prestigious award, describing them as a model of integration. (Reuters)
Pope Francis [7], in his strongest appeal to date on the conflict in Syria, on Wednesday called for an "immediate ceasefire" to allow for the evacuation of civilians. (Reuters)
Turkish troops will remain [8] at a military camp in northern Iraq until Islamic State is driven out of the nearby city of Mosul, Turkey's deputy prime minister said on Wednesday, signaling no respite in a row with Baghdad over the deployment. (Reuters)
Islamic State militants [9] have placed booby traps across the city of Mosul, dug tunnels and recruited children as spies in anticipation of an offensive to dislodge the jihadists from their Iraqi stronghold, Iraqis and U.S. officials said. (Reuters)
Turkey has fired hundreds [10] of senior military staff serving at NATO in Europe and the United States following July's coup attempt, documents show, broadening a purge to include some of the armed forces' best-trained officials. (Reuters)
The United States is seeing growing indications [11] that Iran-allied Houthi rebels, despite denials, were responsible for Sunday's attack on a Navy destroyer off the Yemen coast, U.S. officials told Reuters. (Reuters)
Commentary:
Akiva Eldar [12] says if Israeli PM Netanyahu insists on defying the US president and building a new West Bank settlement, Barack Obama could respond by abstaining in a UN Security Council vote on Palestinian Statehood. (Al-Monitor)
Shlomi Eldar [13] says Salafi groups have adopted the tactic of firing rockets at Israel in an attempt to weaken Hamas by pushing it into a military confrontation with Israel. (Al-Monitor)
Entsar Abu Jahal [14] says earlier in September, the Palestine Trade Center announced the Palestine Exporter Award for 2016, a national recognition to promote an export culture among Palestinian firms, encourage diversification in exports and support access to new markets in a bid to achieve national economic development. (Al-Monitor)
Oliver Bullough [15] says the Kremlin wants to bomb Aleppo into submission and impose peace via a local strongman, just like it did in Grozny a decade and a half ago. (New York Times)
Sulome Anderson [16] says ISIS brutalizes women in the name of Islam — and it still has thousands of female slaves in its grasp. (Foreign Policy)
Rauf Baker [17]puts a spotlight on the plight of the Syrian middle class, five years and counting into the civil war. (The National)
Front Page Features