Israel approves plans for nearly 5,300 new homes in West Bank settlements

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli government has approved plans to build nearly 5,300 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank, a monitoring group said Thursday, the latest in a campaign to accelerate settlement expansion, aimed at cementing Israeli control over the territory and preventing...

Israel approves plans for nearly 5,300 homes in West Bank settlements, a settlement monitor says

Israel turbocharges West Bank settlement expansion with largest land grab in decades

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades, a settlement tracking group said Wednesday, a move that is likely to worsen already soaring tensions linked to the war in Gaza. Israel's aggressive expansion in the...

Israeli airstrike in the northern West Bank kills a Palestinian militant and wounds 5 other people

NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli troops carried out an airstrike in the northern West Bank on Sunday, killing a Palestinian militant and wounding five other people, Palestinian health officials said. The strike took place in Nur Shams, an urban refugee camp that has...

Takeaways from AP's report on sanctioned settlers in the West Bank

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS, West Bank (AP) — More than a dozen Israeli settlers — as well as two affiliated farms and four groups — have been targeted by international sanctions over accusations of attacks and harassment against Palestinians in the West Bank. The measures are meant as...

Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them

SOUTH HEBRON HILLS, West Bank (AP) — For weeks after being sanctioned by the United States, Yinon Levi struggled to pay the bills, living at his farming outpost atop a hill in the occupied West Bank. But the Israeli settler's problems didn’t last. When the banks froze his...

In a West Bank refugee camp, Israel's raids fuel the militancy it tries to stamp out

NUR SHAMS REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — An Israeli army raid in April set off a near three-day gunbattle with Palestinian militants. By the time it was over, homes had been blasted to rubble and many residents had fled. The raid wasn't in Gaza, where Israel is at war with Hamas,...

EU foreign chief says Israel must respect UN court, control settler violence in the West Bank

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's foreign policy chief insisted Sunday that Israel must abide by the U.N. top court's rulings and end its offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and, at the same time, questioned the possible involvement of authorities in the settler violence against...

A Palestinian converted to Judaism. An Israeli soldier saw him as a threat and opened fire

JERUSALEM (AP) — At first, it seemed like the kind of shooting that has become all too common in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A Palestinian aroused suspicions and an Israeli soldier killed him. But then the deceased was identified as David Ben-Avraham, a Palestinian who had made...

A West Bank village feels helpless after Israeli settlers attack with fire and bullets

DUMA, West Bank (AP) — Charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians' vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. The trail of wreckage along Duma's main road is the aftermath of a three-hour...