In an interview with Israeli daily Haaretz, McGowan Davis said that if Israel would have cooperated with the investigation, “we could have met with Israeli victims and seen where rockets landed, talked with commanders, watched videos and visited Gaza“. Abu Khdeir was abducted and murdered by Israeli extremists previous year in a revenge attack after Palestinian militants abducted and murdered three Israeli teenagers weeks before.
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Forces of the government of the Palestinian Authority arrested as many as 100 known Hamas activists in a crackdown on that terrorist organization’s activities in the West Bank.
Islamist Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and is a rival of Fatah, the movement headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas which is dominant in the West Bank. He added, “Palestinian security will stand up against anyone who tries to undermine internal security or civil peace or to drag the country into bloody wars”.
“Israel and Palestine, as well as Hamas, should respect the resolution’s call to cooperate with the worldwide Criminal Court”, New York-based Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
Such sweeps are relatively common, and the detainees are sometimes released within hours or days.
Thousands of Palestinians assembled Friday morning at a crossing point from the West Bank, trying to access Jerusalem for prayers in the Old City, according to Palestinian security sources.
The West Bank, which houses several Israeli settlements that have been declared illegal by worldwide community, has been a site of frequent and violent clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli military.
India on Friday abstained from voting on a resolution adopted by the United Nations Human Rights Council condemning Israel over alleged war crimes during Operation Protective Edge in Gaza and West Bank.
The report accused Israel as well as the Palestinians of being guilty of possible war crimes during last summer’s 50-day conflict with Hamas. There was speculation that it may have been launched from the Sinai Desert, across the border with Egypt, where Islamic State militants have been battling Egyptian forces, but there was no immediate confirmation of that by the Israeli military.
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Under 1993 peace accords, the PA coordinates on West Bank security with Israel, including by sharing intelligence.
