Telegram CEO Pavel Durov arrested in Paris amid investigation into illegal activity on the message app
(LONDON) — Telegram CEO Pavel Durov is being held in custody after being arrested at an airport near Paris over the weekend.
French authorities say his arrest was made in connection with a sprawling investigation into illicit and illegal activity on Telegram, a popular messaging app that promises ultra-secure communications, as well as the option for group chats that can support tens of thousands of people. Telegram says nearly a billion people use the platform worldwide.
The investigation covers everything from alleged drug trafficking, child pornography, money laundering and fraud that took place on or was organized on Telegram. Authorities say Durov is not implicated in those specific crimes; rather, his platform may have run afoul of European law by hosting that content. Durov himself has not yet been charged.
In the European Union, the Digital Services Act is aimed at regulating illegal material posted on social media platforms. It holds that once a company is informed about illegal content on its platform, it becomes liable for that content. In the United States, this content is governed by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which, by contrast, holds that platforms cannot be held liable for content posted on them.
Previous violations of the Digital Services Act by Big Tech firms have largely come in the form of fines, meaning Durov’s arrest marks a significant escalation by European authorities.
Telegram has responded, saying it “abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act,” and that Durov has “nothing to hide.”
The company also says that “it is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for the abuse of that platform.”
Durov was born in Russia, and founded Telegram alongside his brother in 2013. The following year he fled the country amid pressure from the Russian government for Telegram to share information on Ukrainian users. Prior to that Durov created VK, a Russian social networking site similar to Facebook.
(NEW YORK) — As the Israel-Hamas war continues, tensions are escalating after the assassinations of two Hamas and Hezbollah leaders this week.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Palestinian death toll climbs to 39,755
At least 39,755 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
On Oct. 7, about 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
IDF soldiers accused of abusing Palestinian prisoners denied release
Five Israel Defense Forces soldiers who are in custody under suspicion of aggravated abuse of a Palestinian prisoner have been denied release by a military court on Thursday, according to the IDF.
The Military Court of Appeals approved the detention of the suspects until Sunday, stating that from the evidence presented, there is “reasonable suspicion of the commission of the acts attributed to them. The military court also determined that there was a clear cause of danger from the attributed acts,” the IDF said.
United Nations experts have called the reported widespread torture of Palestinian detainees a “preventable crime against humanity.”
“Reports of alleged torture and sexual violence in Israel’s Sde Teiman prison are grossly illegal and revolting, but they only represent the tip of the iceberg, independent human rights experts warned,” U.N. experts said on Tuesday.
Around 9,500 Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently imprisoned — about one-third of them without charge or trial, according to the U.N.
27 killed in Gaza, IDF says Hamas weapons workshop found in Khan Younis
At least 27 people were killed in different parts of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Of those killed, 18 Palestinians were killed in eastern and central Khan Yunis.
The Israeli Defense Forces said they found a Hamas weapons manufacturing workshop in a tunnel below Khan Yunis in a statement Wednesday.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Jordana Miller
Egypt advises airlines to avoid Iranian airspace
Egypt has issued a notice to all Egyptian airlines to not fly over Iranian airspace at times when Iran is conducting military exercises on Wednesday and Thursday.
59.3% buildings in Gaza Strip damaged or destroyed, CUNY analysis shows
A new map based on open-access satellite data shows the damage across the Gaza Strip through July 27, where an estimated 59.3% of buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Oct. 5, 2023.
According to the analysis, most of the destruction in July was in Rafah, where 750 additional buildings were damaged or destroyed last month, bringing the total infrastructural damage in the southernmost city of Gaza to 45.4%.
The damage analysis of the Copernicus Sentinel-1 satellite data was done by Corey Scher of CUNY Graduate Center and Jamon Van Den Hoek of Oregon State University.
-ABC News’ Camilla Alcini
2 killed, 6 injured in Israeli strike on southern Lebanon
At least two people were killed and six others were injured in an Israeli drone raid on the town of Joya in southern Lebanon Wednesday.
The attack comes as Israel awaits a military response from Hezbollah or Iran after it assassinated leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas.
Hezbollah said it carried out three retaliatory strikes on northern Israel on Wednesday — attacking the Al-Raheb site with artillery shells, the Jal Al-Alam site with artillery shells and the Al-Malikiyah site with rockets.
IDF calls Sinwar terrorist following appointment, remains committed to killing him
Shortly after Hamas announced it appointed Yahya Sinwar as a the head of its political bureau after the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, a spokesperson for the IDF said Israel remains committed to killing him.
“Yahya Sinwar is a terrorist, who is responsible for the most brutal terrorist attack in history – October 7th. There is only one place for Yahya Sinwar, and it is beside Mohammed Deif and the rest of the October 7th terrorists. That is the only place we’re preparing and intending for him,” Daniel Hagari said in an interview with Al-Arabia.
Last Israeli designated missing after Oct. 7 attack confirmed dead
Bilha Yinon, the last hostage who was unaccounted for by the Israeli government, has now been confirmed dead.
Yinon was killed on Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Yahya Sinwar will replace Haniyeh as head of Hamas political bureau
Hamas has announced that Yahya Sinwar will replace Ismail Haniyeh as the head of the group’s political bureau after Israel’s assassination of Haniyeh. Sinwar was the head of Hamas in Gaza.
Sinwar has a $400,000 bounty on his head following the group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
Sinwar was chosen unanimously in negotiations managed by leadership, according to a top Hamas official.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Ghazi Balkiz
‘Hezbollah is obligated to respond’ to Israel, Nasrallah says
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has vowed to respond to the Israeli assassination of senior official Fouad Shukr, and predicted a response from Iran after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in Tehran last week.
“After the assassination of Commander Sayyed Fouad Shukr, Hezbollah is obligated to respond, and the enemy is waiting, anticipating, and calculating that every shout at him is a response. This Israeli weeklong waiting in anticipation — for a Hezb response — is part of the punishment, part of the response,” Nasrallah said in a speech Tuesday.
Multiple IDF troops injured in Rafah, humanitarian road closed
Several Israeli troops were injured and a humanitarian road was shut down after anti-tank missiles were fired toward them during operations in Rafah.
Injured troops have been evacuated to a hospital for medical treatment.
The Kerem Shalom Crossing and the other entry routes for humanitarian aid are operating, according to the IDF.
Lebanon aims to prevent Hezbollah response to avoid wider war, says foreign minister
Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said the country is working to ensure that Hezbollah’s response to Israel does not trigger a total war, saying, “It would not benefit any of the countries involved.”
“Only those who want to incite conflict would gain from such a situation. We, as officials, do not want any war. Therefore, if a response is necessary, it should not be collective or so severe that it escalates into a broader conflict,” Bou Habib said.
At least 8 Palestinians killed during Israeli military raids in occupied West Bank
At least eight Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during military raids in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, Palestinian health authorities said.
Five were killed in the city of Jenin, two in the nearby village of Khafer Dan and one in the city of Bethlehem, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the West Bank.
Earlier, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said at least 15 people were injured during the raid in Jenin on Tuesday. A spokesperson for PRCS told ABC News that the organization’s medical teams were stopped by Israeli troops from reaching the wounded.
ABC News has reached out to the Israel Defense Forces for comment.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta and Camilla Alcini
Palestinians in West Bank being blocked from medical care: New report
Palestinians in the West Bank are being restricted access to medical care, including for physical injuries and mental trauma, according to a new report from Doctors Without Borders.
“Access to medical care for Palestinians in Hebron is rapidly deteriorating because of restrictions imposed by Israeli forces and violence perpetrated by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” Doctors Without Borders said.
Ministry of Health clinics across Hebron, in the West Bank, have been forced to close, pharmacies have run short of medications and ambulances transporting the sick and wounded have been obstructed and attacked. Faced with restrictions on their movements and the threat of violence, many sick people delay seeing a doctor or have no choice but to stop medical treatments altogether, according to data collected by Doctors Without Borders between June 2023 and April 2024.
“The movement restrictions, and harassment and violence by Israeli forces and settlers, is inflicting immense and unnecessary suffering on Palestinians in Hebron,” said Frederieke van Dongen, the group’s humanitarian affairs manager.
Israeli prisons are ‘network of torture’ for Palestinians: Human rights group
B’tselem, a major Israeli human rights group, published a report alleging that the Israeli prison system has become a “network of torture camps” for Palestinians arrested since Oct. 7.
The group reported abuse including “frequent acts of severe, arbitrary violence; sexual assault; humiliation; deliberate starvation and sleep deprivation.”
The number of Palestinians in Israeli jails and detention centers stands at 9,623, the rights group said, including, 4,781 held without charge. An estimated 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli custody.
The Israeli army and government have denied allegations of systematic abuse, and the prisons service said it is are not aware of the claims in the report.
But, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right minister for national security who is in charge of the prisons service, has long championed the deteriorating conditions in prisons for Palestinian prisoners, who he said are “terrorists,” as a matter of policy.
“Since I assumed the position of Minister of National Security, one of the highest goals I have set for myself is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law,” he said in July. “Everything published about the abominable conditions of these vile murderers in prison was true.”
In response to claims of overcrowding, Ben-Gvir has advocated the death penalty as a response.
Israel, Hezbollah exchange fire, killing at least five in Lebanon and injuring two in Israel
Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets and drones toward northern Israel on Tuesday morning and afternoon, injuring at least two people, after an earlier Israeli airstrike killed at least five people in southern Lebanon, according to authorities on both sides.
The Lebanese militant group said in separate statements that Tuesday’s attacks against Israel — at least four so far — were carried out both in support of the Palestinian people in the war-torn Gaza Strip and in response to recent Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon.
One of those drones was intercepted by Israeli air defense and the falling shrapnel injured “several civilians” south of Nahariya, the northernmost coastal city of Israel, according to the IDF.
Israel’s Magen David Adam rescue service said its first responders were deployed to the scene and treated a 30-year-old man in serious condition and a 30-year-old woman in mild-to-moderate condition with shrapnel injuries to the lower limbs. Both patients were transported to the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.
“We saw the male unconscious in the car with a severe head injury from shrapnel. A female who was fully conscious with shrapnel injuries to her lower limbs was in a parking lot nearby,” paramedic Roi Vishna and senior EMT Noam Levi said in a joint statement released by MDA.” We treated the male including ventilating him and providing medications, and evacuated him by MICU in very serious condition to hospital. The female casualty was evacuated in mild to moderate condition.”
Hezbollah launched the counterattacks after an Israeli airstrike on the town of Mifdoun in southern Lebanon killed at least five people on Tuesday morning, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. It was not immediately clear whether civilians were among the casualties.
Israel and Hezbollah have exchanged near-daily strikes for the past 10 months amid the ongoing war in Gaza. But regional tensions have soared following last week’s assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran’s capital and Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur in Lebanon’s capital.
Israel kills another Hezbollah commander
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed on Monday they had killed another Hezbollah commander in a strike on Lebanon. Ali Jamal Aldin Jawad, a commander in Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, was killed in the strike.
The death was also confirmed by Hezbollah.
“His elimination significantly degrades the capabilities of the Hezbollah terrorist organization to promote and carry out terror activities from southern Lebanon against northern Israel,” the IDF said.
Israel’s killing of a Hezbollah official in Beirut, Fuad Shukr, and a Hamas official in Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, has pushed the Middle East to the brink of further war.
Remains of about 80 deceased Palestinians returned after being taken by IDF
The deceased remains of an estimated 80 Palestinians — which Israeli forces took from Gazan cemeteries to identify whether hostages had been buried there — were returned by the Israel Defense Forces.
The bodies were decomposed beyond recognition, with Gazan officials saying between three and four bodies were in each bag. They will be reburied in a mass grave in Khan Younis.
A Gazan civil defense official on the ground said there is no data as to who these individuals were.
“I wished I could find him, to be at peace,” Suwa Abu Rajilah, a mother who traveled to the site to see if her son, killed in the war, was there. “To say I buried him, but I couldn’t find him.”
-ABC News’ Dia Ostaz
9 UN employees fired after investigation into ties to Oct. 7 attack
The U.N. has fired nine employees following a lengthy investigation into ties to the Oct. 7 attacks, the organization said.
The U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated 19 staff members with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East as part of the probe.
For nine of the staffers, evidence was found that they “may have been involved in the armed attacks,” the U.N. said.
“The employment of these individuals will be terminated in the interests of the Agency,” the organization said in a statement.
There was no evidence or insufficient evidence that the other investigated staffers had been involved, they added.
At least 7 Hezbollah attacks Monday
In another active day on the northern Israeli border, Hezbollah launched at least seven attacks on Monday.
The IDF said they “successfully intercepted” the projectiles, and no injuries were reported.
Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying in a statement they had launched them “in support of our steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and in support of their valiant and honorable resistance.”
The IDF also said Monday that they had “identified a terrorist cell operating a drone in the area of Meiss El Jabal in southern Lebanon.”
“Shortly following the identification, the IAF struck and eliminated the terrorists,” they said.
Israeli officer and soldier injured in aerial attack from Lebanon: IDF
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) officer and a soldier were injured after an aerial attack in northern Israel’s upper Galilee region near Ayelet HaShahar early Monday morning local time, the IDF said in a statement.
The aerial targets crossed from Lebanon, the IDF said.
“Israel Fire Services are currently operating to extinguish a fire that was ignited in the area as a result of the attack,” the IDF said.
Netanyahu says Israel will strike wherever necessary
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel is prepared to stand against attacks from Iran and its proxies.
“Iran and its detractors seek to surround us with a choke ring of terrorism on seven fronts. Their open aggression is insatiable,” Netanyahu said during a state memorial service commemorating the death of Revisionist Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky in 1940.
Netanyahu added, “We are determined to stand against them on every front, in every arena, far and near. “
Netanyahu’s comments came just days after the assassination in Iran of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He was killed in an explosion on Wednesday at a guest house in Tehran that he was staying in while attending the inauguration of Iran’s new president, Masoud Pezeshkian. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh’s death.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has called for “revenge” against Israel.
Haniyeh’s assassination followed the death of Mohammed Deif, commander of Hamas’ military wing, in a “precise, targeted strike” in the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis on July 13. Deif was allegedly one of the masterminds of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
IDF officials also announced that they killed top Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in a precision missile strike Tuesday in Beirut, Lebanon. Officials claim he had been orchestrating drone and rocket attacks on northern Israel, including one on July 27 in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights that killed 12 children and teenagers playing soccer.
“Anyone who murders our citizens, anyone who harms our country, will not be cleared of responsibility,” Netanyahu said Sunday. “He will pay a very heavy price. Our long hand strikes in the Gaza Strip, in Yemen, in Beirut, wherever necessary.”
Netanyahu said Israel’s goals are to “secure our future” and the ensure that hostages taken by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 attack in Israel are returned home.
“We will continue to press the pedal,” Netanyahu said. “We did not let up from the pressure in all combat areas. We will take an offensive, creative, persistent initiative — until victory comes.”
(LONDON) — The U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan has said U.S.-mediated cease-fire talks between warring Sudanese parties are set to go ahead this week, despite pending confirmation of participation from the Sudanese Army.
The talks are set to begin Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, and will be co-hosted by Switzerland and Saudi Arabia with additional observation from the African Union, Egypt, the United Nations and the United Arab Emirates, a senior U.S. official told ABC News.
“The time for peace is now,” said U.S. Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello on Tuesday ahead of talks aimed at ending the now 16-month war between the Sudanese Army (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary group (RSF), along with its allied militias.
“The RSF delegation has arrived in Switzerland,” Perriello said on social media early on Wednesday. “Our U.S. delegation, and the collective international partners, technical experts, and Sudanese civil society, are still waiting on the SAF. The world is watching.”
Perriello said in the days leading up to the talks that the facilitators had had “extensive engagement” with the SAF, but still had not been given confirmation that representatives would arrive in Switzerland.
“We will move forward with every effort possible with our international partners to reach an action plan, a concrete action plan, about how we can advance that cessation of violence and the full humanitarian access and, monitoring and enforcement mechanism,” he said. “These are long past due.”
The talks come as the U.N. warns the situation in Sudan has reached a “catastrophic breaking point,” with a declaration of famine in Sudan’s North Darfur, recent widespread flooding and unabated combat between warring parties compounding on what was already “one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent memory.”
New figures from the International Office for Migration (IOM) show displacement in Sudan continues to soar, with almost 11 million people now internally displaced — many of whom have already been displaced twice, or more.
“Tens of millions of Sudanese face either full on starvation or acute hunger,” said Perriello. “There are more refugees and displaced people than the entire population of Switzerland just from Sudan alone right now.”
In Sudan’s Sennar State, where the RSF has advanced amid reports of widespread killings, lootings and human rights abuses, over 700,000 people have been displaced.
“Without an immediate, massive, and coordinated global response, we risk witnessing tens of thousands of preventable deaths in the coming months. We are at breaking point, a catastrophic, cataclysmic breaking point,” said Othman Belbeisi, IOM’s Regional Director for Middle East North Africa.
The northeast African nation was plunged into chaos in April 2023 as tensions between Sudan’s military and the notorious paramilitary group RSF boiled over as forces loyal to the two rival generals battled for control of the resource-rich nation following talks over a planned transition to civilian rule.
Fighting began on April 15, 2023, in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, before spreading across the country. The combat between warring parties has continued to rage in areas of North Darfur, Al Jazirah state, Sennar State, West Kordofan and other areas.
The civil war has left almost 16,000 dead in its wake and at least 33,000 injured according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Local groups, however, warn the true toll is likely much higher.
The U.S. invited warring parties to cease-fire talks last month. The talks are the latest in a string of yet-successful initiatives aimed at ending the war as regional and international efforts to end the conflict intensify.
They aim to build off the Jeddah negotiations, which were co-facilitated with Saudi Arabia. The talks are not set to address broader political issues, the U.S. State Department said.
“The US and our partners stand with the Sudanese people in pushing forward with all efforts to produce a cessation of violence and expanded humanitarian access now,” said Perriello.
(NEW YORK) — Journalist Amr Manasra says he remembers the moment an iron column saved his life.
It was a miracle, he said, when an Israeli sniper’s bullet was met by the iron before it could reach his press vest — as he lay down in the streets of Jenin in the occupied West Bank — where he was documenting the latest raid by the Israeli forces with a few other colleagues.
In that 40-hour operation in late May, at least 11 people were killed and over 30 people were injured, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health.
Although locals interviewed by ABC News said they are used to the presence of Israeli forces in Jenin, they said they are still living through the consequences of that one operation, the full scope of the damage coming to light only now as witnesses speak up. The trail of destruction of infrastructure and resources left by that Israeli operation fits into what the U.N. has said is an increasing pattern of violence against Palestinians and their communities in the occupied territories.
ABC News has pieced together a wider accounting of the destruction that Jenin sustained in this raid and subsequently by talking to more than a dozen witnesses, including journalists on the ground, international organizations operating in Jenin, residents, and local authorities, and by obtaining and verifying visual evidence from the scene.
They said that this raid was the first of this kind in Jenin since Oct. 7, when in a surprise attack, Hamas and other militants infiltrated southern Israel and killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250. Almost immediately, Israel began its war on Hamas in Gaza, which has left over 39,890 Palestinians killed in the Strip and 92,200 injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
Early on May 21, Israeli troops moved deep into the Jenin refugee camp for what they called a counter-terrorism operation.
The troops opened fire on civilians, according to witnesses including paramedics on the scene, killing bystanders. Among them, three children, a prominent doctor, and a teacher.
Other witnesses interviewed by ABC News said the Israeli troops then proceeded to demolish homes, raid public buildings and dig up water pipes and roads with armored bulldozers, providing photo and video evidence that ABC News was able to geolocate to places in Jenin.
“IDF forces, the Shin Bet and Magav (Border Police) completed an operation to counter terrorism in Jenin this morning. As part of the operation, about 20 terrorist infrastructures were destroyed, including an explosives laboratory and dozens of weapons,” the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement to ABC News on May 23, the same day they left Jenin. Hamas later claimed two male adults among the victims, as confirmed by sources to ABC News.
Those 40 hours were the deadliest for Jenin since Oct. 7, and one of the most violent in the recent history of the refugee camp, according to the local United Nations office.
Located less than 20 miles south of Nazareth, Jenin is home to one of the most densely populated of 19 refugee camps for Palestinians in the West Bank, with over 20,000 registered refugees, according to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA. It opened in 1953 to house Palestinians seeking refuge following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Its displaced residents and their descendants have maintained special refugee status, living in a kind of limbo for decades as Jenin developed into a city, its occupants holding onto hope they will one day claim what they say is their right to the disputed land.
Jenin also became a stronghold of the Palestinian armed struggle against the Israeli occupation, which includes factions of terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad and an armed wing of Fatah allied under the umbrella of what is known as Jenin Brigades, making it a frequent target for Israeli raid.
Especially in the past ten months, Jenin has been raided multiple times by Israeli forces, including in January, when soldiers entered the Ibn Sina Hospital disguised as patients, in what may account for a violation of international law, several experts told ABC News.
Still, the 40-hour operation in May stood out for its impact and scale. “This was not a normal raid but a full-scale invasion,” the director of UNRWA in the West Bank, Adam Bouloukos, told ABC News, calling the operation “definitely unusual.”
“They went into our buildings and destroyed everything, room by room,” Bouloukos said, adding that hundreds of Israeli soldiers arrived in full equipment.
Pictures obtained by ABC News appear to show the damage inside the U.N. buildings in Jenin after that raid.
UNRWA said Israeli soldiers camped overnight in its relief and social services office, leaving behind pizza boxes with names in Hebrew, scattered documents and broken furniture.
Some hospital rooms and the outside of the building also appear damaged, with broken monitors, windows, doors, chairs, fans and medical equipment among the vandalized objects.
Other videos appeared to show military vehicles inside the city center, near the hospital and refugee camp. The videos appeared to include the sounds of heavy gunfire.
Among the first to respond, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), whose spokesperson in Jenin, Ahmed Jibril, told ABC News that the first calls for assistance started around 8 a.m. on May 21.
But as they made their way, their ambulances were prevented from reaching the wounded and searched by Israeli forces, Jibril said. Videos geolocated by ABC News show at least three ambulances being searched in three locations in Jenin that the PRCS said are from incidents on that day.
“The shooting happened all over the refugee camp and surroundings. They began obstructing the entrance of our crews to the camp to assist people or to carry them to the hospital,” the PRCS spokesperson said.
“Our crews were stripped naked and interrogated together with the injured they were transporting,” he added.
Another video shared by the PRCS on their X account appears to show the moment a paramedic is forced to raise his arms and abandon the patient he was assisting.
“The PRCS ambulance man gave the injured first aid and wanted to put him on the stretcher. It was around 1:30 a.m. when the Israeli forces stopped him and asked to leave the place,” Jibril said of the video. “After questions and searching, the Israeli forces arrested the injured person and dismissed the ambulance.”
Journalists on duty in the refugee camp said they were also searched the same day and, in at least one case, injured and almost killed, they told ABC News.
Palestinian photojournalist Amr Manasra was filmed by a colleague, Obada Tahayna, moments after he was shot by Israeli soldiers a few feet away from the entrance of the refugee camp, he said.
“There was no one in the street except journalists and the Israeli occupation army,” Manasra told ABC News in June. “We were wearing our official press uniform, including body armor and a helmet.”
Manasra said a small group of journalists moved towards the Jenin Governmental Hospital to document what was happening there.
“When the first two of our fellow journalists came forward, the occupation army began shooting at me and our colleague Tahaina,” Manasra told ABC News. Tahaina, who filmed the scene, confirmed the sequence of events to ABC News.
The block on ambulances continued for the second day, according to the PRCS, who said the Israeli forces rejected at least 30 requests to coordinate with them in order to allow their medical staff to assist patients.
“They also arrested a paramedic from inside the Ibn Sina ambulance and opened fire on the Red Crescent ambulance,” the PRCS added. The PRCS shared via text message a photo of the damaged ambulance, which ABC News could not independently verify.
With the world focused on the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, experts are warning about the parallel spike in violence in the West Bank by the Israeli forces.
The U.N. Human Rights Office said in June it has observed over 80 cases of “consistent violations of international human rights law,” including “disproportionate use of lethal force,” apparently “targeted killings” and “systematic denial or delaying of medical assistance to those critically injured” in the West Bank since Oct. 7 by the Israeli military.
“As if the tragic events in Israel and then Gaza over the past eight months were not enough, the people of the occupied West Bank are also being subjected to day-after-day of unprecedented bloodshed,” U.N. Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said in a statement on June 4, after the total number of killed in the West Bank surpassed 500.
It recently topped 600, with at least 623 Palestinians killed and over 5,400 injured, according to data collected by the Palestinian Health Ministry and the U.N.
While settler violence also contributes to the death toll, over 75 percent of the total fatalities since Oct. 7 have taken place during operations by Israeli forces in cities and villages, the U.N.’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, told ABC News.
The number, which includes militants as well as stone-throwing youth, comprises 145 children, averaging one child killed every two days in the West Bank since the war in Gaza started, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem is considered by Palestinians as the core of a future independent state along with Gaza. Last month, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the top UN court, ruled that Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories is unlawful and called for the immediate end of settlements, in what is considered an unprecedented condemnation of the decades-long occupation. Israel rejected the ruling, with the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling it “false”.
While the international community weighs in on the decision of the ICJ, raids such as the one in Jenin on May 21 risk making parts of the West Bank unlivable for Palestinians, humanitarian agents and local government said.
Jenin City Mayor, Nidal Obeidi, told ABC News that the city’s essential infrastructure has been more heavily damaged in the months following October than ever before. Obeidi underlines the lack of electricity as well as the economic loss of Jenin residents, unable to conduct their businesses. “The streets are so destroyed that people can barely walk or drive with their cars,” Obeidi said.
The destruction that happened during the two-day raid in May was further exacerbated by more operations in the months that followed, with Israeli forces relentlessly returning to Jenin for what they said was part of a wider anti-terrorism operation at least four times, on June 6, June 13, June 22 and August 5, each time for less than a day.
11 were killed as a result, some were detained and over 30 were injured with bullets and shrapnel wounds as well as by an airstrike, according to reports by the local PRCS reviewed by ABC News. The IDF said in different statements that they targeted and eliminated terrorists with these operations.
On June 22, video footage that ABC News geolocated to Jenin appeared to show an injured Palestinian man tied to the hood of an Israeli military jeep, in what human rights experts called a case of “human shielding.” The Israeli military said the incident was under investigation.
With over 302 Palestinians killed in the Jenin Governorate alone since Oct.7, the city and its surroundings have the highest number of victims across the West Bank governorates, according to OCHA.
“Reports of exchanges of fire are frequent. Houses are damaged, infrastructure is destroyed, and people are left homeless. Ambulance access is delayed as people are killed and injured,” an OCHA spokesperson told ABC News. “De-escalation is a must.”
ABC News’ Helena Skinner, Samy Zayara, Nasser Atta, Diaa Hamdi, Latifeh Abdellatif and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.