By Alexandra Sharp
Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at an Israeli military operation in the West Bank, the United Kingdom resetting European Union ties, and Mexico pausing relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies.
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Israel’s Eastern Front
Israeli soldiers operate during a raid in the Nur Shams refugee camp near the city of Tulkarm in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Aug. 28.Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli forces raided the West Bank cities of Jenin and Tulkarm as well as al-Faraa refugee camp on Wednesday, carrying out mass arrests, confiscating “large quantities” of weapons, and killing at least 10 people, many of whom the Israeli military said were Palestinian militants. This was the largest Israeli operation in the West Bank since July 2023, when around 1,000 Israeli troops killed 12 Palestinians during a 48-hour attack on Jenin.
Wednesday’s assault was aimed at thwarting militants that posed an “immediate threat” to civilians, according to Israeli military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. “This terror threat in this area is not new. It hasn’t started yesterday, and it’s not going to end tomorrow,” he said, adding that the operation is still in its “first phases.”
It is unclear what future phases might entail, but Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said his country will address militant activity in the West Bank “with the same determination used against terror infrastructures in Gaza,” including possibly evacuating Palestinian civilians. Shoshani said more than 150 attacks involving shootings or explosives have occurred in Jenin and Tulkarm over the past year.
Among Israel’s actions on Wednesday, helicopters and drones were spotted over the region and Israeli troops surrounded Jenin’s main hospital, using checkpoints and earth mounds to block access to the facility to allegedly prevent militants from operating out of the building. Shoshani said Israel has “no plan to seize or capture” the hospital. Israel Border Police and intelligence agency Shin Bet helped coordinate Wednesday’s operation.
Palestinian leaders condemned Israel’s raid. Hamas called on its followers to “escalate all forms of resistance” against Israel, and Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, urged the world to “take immediate and urgent action” to curb Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which Abu Rudeineh called “extremist.” The armed branches of Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Fatah all said their gunmen were detonating bombs against Israeli military vehicles in the West Bank.
More than 600 Palestinians and at least 15 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since the Israel-Hamas war began last October, according to the United Nations humanitarian affairs office. Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested, and the number of violent attacks against Palestinian communities by extremist Israeli settlers have risen.
Wednesday’s operation also underscored the numerous security threats that Israel has faced since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Shoshani said on Wednesday that Israel has identified a “systematic strategy in Iran” to smuggle weapons and explosives into the West Bank to help stoke militancy against Israel. Tehran backs Hamas as well as Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, and Iran has repeatedly vowed to attack Israel in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month.
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What We’re Following
London courts the EU. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Wednesday to discuss efforts to reset British relations with the European Union. Although Starmer said London will not reverse its Brexit decision or rejoin the bloc’s single market, he stressed that strengthening the United Kingdom’s ties to the rest of the continent was a top priority for his administration.
Starmer and Scholz agreed on Wednesday to work on a new cooperation treaty covering science, tech, and trade, among other issues. This is a “once-in-a-generation chance to deliver for working people in Britain and in Germany,” Starmer said on Tuesday, ahead of the trip. The two leaders hope to sign the agreement by early next year. British and German defense ministers are also working on a new defense treaty.
Starmer flew to Paris later on Wednesday to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron and attend the 2024 Paralympic Games. France is another major power in the European Union, further stressing Starmer’s interest in reinvigorating ties with the bloc.
Paused relations. Mexico has placed relations with the U.S. and Canadian embassies “on pause,” President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced on Tuesday. It is unclear what the pause could mean; however, Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena Ibarra said Mexico’s relationship “with our friends and neighbors in North America is a priority and fundamental, and on a daily level remains fluid and normal.”
López Obrador’s decision was made in response to U.S. and Canadian officials criticizing Mexico’s judicial overhaul proposal, which the Mexican president suggested during his final weeks in office as part of a package of constitutional changes awaiting congressional approval. Under the policy, judges would be elected to office by popular vote, which international observers fear could allow the ruling administration to stack the courts with politically biased justices and force thousands of judges from their jobs.
Nationwide protests erupted this week over the proposal. U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar called the overhaul a “risk” to democracy, though he’s since dialed back his critiques after López Obrador accused him of violating Mexico’s sovereignty. The Mexican president also claimed that Canada has interfered in an internal matter by expressing investors’ concerns about the proposal.
Potential nuclear negotiations. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested on Tuesday that Tehran may reopen nuclear negotiations with the United States. There is “no barrier” to discussions with the “enemy,” Khamenei said on state TV. He did not specify whether future talks would be more substantive than past back-channel diplomacy. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was elected last month largely for his reformist platform, which included advocating for detente with the West.
In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Since then, Tehran has abandoned limits on its nuclear program by enriching uranium to up to 60 percent purity, which is near weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. “If Iran wants to demonstrate seriousness or a new approach, they should stop nuclear escalations and start meaningfully cooperating with the [International Atomic Energy Agency],” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said.
Odds and Ends
Hong Kong’s Education Bureau published controversial new sex education materials last week that encourage young people to repress sexual desires by avoiding stimulating media, dressing appropriately, and seeking diversions via exercise—specifically, badminton. “Is badminton the Hong Kong answer to sexual impulses in schoolchildren?” one South China Morning Post article asked. Maybe, but teenagers in Hong Kong are finding the policy amusing, with new slang changing the expression “friends with benefits” to “friends with badminton.” Guess we should now call it the birdies and the bees.
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