On April 20, 2018, the fourth Friday of the "great return march," about 10,000 Palestinians demonstrated and rioted at five central locations along the Gaza Strip border. Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have avoided exceptional shows of solidarity with the Gaza Strip, even before special events. Read more...
On April 21, 2018, two masked assailants shot Fadi al-Batsh to death in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Fadi al-Batsh, 35, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, was an electrical engineer and a lecturer at the British-Malaysian Institute of the Kuala Lumpur University. According to a Malaysian newspaper, he was also an expert in the construction of rockets, active in Islamist groups in Malaysia and a Hamas activist. Read more...
During and after the events of "great return march" that began on March 20, 2018, between 32 and 34 Palestinians were killed (as of April 11, 2018). Most of them have been identified as terrorist operatives affiliated with Hamas and the other terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip. Read more...
Events of the third Friday of the "great return march" were less intense and there were fewer casualties than on the two previous Fridays. Judea and Samaria were relatively quiet. The commission for detainees and ex-detainees affairs held a press conference to launch Palestinian Prisoners' Day, 2018 (held every year on March 17). The Arab League held a summit meeting in Saudi Arabia. Mahmoud Abbas gave a speech in which he claimed that east Jerusalem "has been and will eternally remain the capital of the state of Palestine Read more...
Hamas and the organizers of the events will apparently make an effort to preserve the tension along the border at least until May 15, 2018 (Nakba Day). Friday, April 20, 2018, has been designated as "the Friday of the shaheeds and prisoners," a subject close to the hearts of many Palestinians. That may succeed in motivating more demonstrators to go to the border fence and may also motivate the residents of Judea and Samaria to hold their own events. Read more...
Seven Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) cadres, including a senior commander with the rank of colonel in the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) operation of the IRGC, were killed last week in an airstrike on the Syrian Air Force Base T-4. Bolstering of the Iran-Russia axis: Iran and Russia held discussions on the escalation in Syria. Iran stood by Syria following the chemical weapons attack on Douma by the Assad regime, and the United States’ threat to respond militarily to this attack. in a meeting with representatives of the electoral bloc formed by leaders of some of the Shi’ite pro-Iranian militias ahead of the elections. The Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammed Javad Zarif, held a phone call with the Head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, against the backdrop of the “Marches of Return” in Gaza. Zarif emphasized to Haniyeh Iran’s support for the Palestinians Read more...