RAMALLAH: Dozens of people were injured in violent clashes in East Jerusalem on Sunday night as settlers continued their attempts to forcibly evict Palestinian families from their homes.

For the second day running, Israeli police took to the streets of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, closing streets and alleyways near to the home of Fatima Salem and her family, and using water, cavalry teams, stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse the crowds.

The attacks by settlers on Jerusalemites in the neighborhood continued into the early hours, with groups throwing stones at houses, spraying pepper gas and raising Israeli flags. Others roamed the streets provoking locals, singing and dancing.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 31 people were injured after being hit by stun grenades, rubber bullets and pepper gas. They included three paramedics, a journalist and two foreign activists. Police arrested 11 Jerusalemites.

Tensions in the neighborhood increased after Itamar Ben Gvir, an Israeli far-right member of the Knesset, set up his office there in solidarity with the settlers who are trying to seize Palestinian homes.

After the provocation turned to violence, Israeli police and border guards — who were deployed mostly to protect the settlers — joined in the attacks on Palestinian citizens, which caused the conflict to escalate further.

Abdulfattah Eskafi, one of the 28 homeowners in Sheikh Jarrah who have been under attack, said the situation was getting worse.

“There was an escalation in the settlers’ violence against us after they failed to evacuate us as a group,” he told Arab News. “They are trying to single us out and evict us house by house.”

He described the events of Sunday night as a “street war,” adding that the Israeli police had protected the settlers and attacked the Palestinians with “excessive force.”

“They want to take control of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, which they have no right to, through every possible method,” Abdulfattah Eskafi said.

Palestinian factions, including Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, threatened a violent response if the attacks by settlers and the police continued.

Fatah spokesperson Osama Al-Qawasma told Arab News: “Fatah demands its members and our people to be present in Sheikh Jarrah to confront the settlers directly and the occupation forces who seek to Judaize Sheikh Jarrah and expel the families from their homes.

“We are in the first trench, defending every inch of Palestine with all our capabilities.”

Fatah Central Committee Secretary-General Jibril Rajoub said that “Israeli terrorism” was to blame for the ongoing tension in Sheikh Jarrah.

He told Arab News that he condemned Israel’s “ethnic cleansing of everything related to Islam, Christianity and Arabism in occupied Jerusalem.”

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas spoke to Fatima Salem, whose home has been under attack, over the phone to express his support for her and her family.

“We stand with you heart and soul, and our hearts and minds are with you, and the occupation will end soon,” he said.

Abbas also praised the sacrifices of Jerusalemites and their steadfastness in the face of the arbitrary measures of the Israeli occupation forces.

The latest attacks on Palestinians have sparked fears of a repeat of the violent conflict between Hamas and Israel that lasted for 11 days in May last year, following similar provocation by settlers and supporters of Bin Gvir.

Abdulatif Al-Qanou, a Hamas spokesperson, told Arab News: “The Sheikh Jarrah people are not alone. Rather, the Palestinian resistance is ready to defend them, and it is closely following this Israeli behavior.

“We cannot allow the occupation to repeat the experience of displacement from the neighborhoods and areas of occupied Jerusalem.”

The Israeli government is trying to evacuate about 100 families from 28 properties and give them to the settlers. About 100 people from 19 Jewish families currently live in three houses in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood.

The events of recent days in Sheikh Jarrah have made headlines on social media platforms used by Palestinians.

The neighborhood has a high significance because it is located in Jerusalem, and any event that takes place in the city has greater resonance than those that happen in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Because of its location, the Israeli police cannot resort to deadly force against Palestinians as used by the armed forces in the West Bank and on the borders with the Gaza Strip, which means the protests in Sheikh Jarrah are more drawn out.

RIYADH: The Coalition to Restore Legitimacy in Yemen on Monday said it has destroyed a Houthi communications system in Sanaa that was being used to control drones for hostile operations.

In a series of tweets, the Coalition said the communications system was located at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in the Yemeni capital.

“The Houthis are militarily using Yemeni state institutions and ministries to launch hostile operations,” it said, adding that the site had been linked to the February 10 drone attack on Saudi Arabia’s Abha International Airport.

Twelve civilians were injured in the attack on the airport, located in the Kingdom’s southwestern border with Yemen.

Prior to launching a strike to take down the Houthi communication system, the Coalition took pains to call on civilians in the site to evacuate.

“We made a call via landline to one of the ministries and asked to evacuate civilians to a site in Sanaa,” the Coalition said.

Analysts say the Houthis have long evaded retaliatory strikes from Coalition forces by hiding behind populated areas of and civilian facilities. But the Coalition has said that subterfuge has to end.

“Cross-border attacks require more effective response within the framework of international law,” the Coalition said in its statement.

The Houthi militia, tagged as a proxy of Iran’s mullah regime in Yemen, has also stepped up its attacks on civilian targets in the United Arab Emirates in January following battlefield victories by Yemeni government forces backed by the Coalition.

UAE-trained Yemeni forces known as the Giants Brigades have played key roles in driving the Houthis out of several cities and towns in central Yemen, inflicting heavy losses on the terrorist militia that had earlier seized wide swaths of territory since 2014.

The Coalition was organized in 2015 to restore the UN-recognized government of Prime Minister Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, which sought exile in the Saudi capital.

Efforts by the UN to broker peace talks between the warring parties in Yemen have been not prospered as the Houthis have refused to cooperate. 

JERUSALEM: Prosecutors in the high-profile corruption case against former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that police have found no unlawful use of phone surveillance technology against witnesses in the trial.

The state attorney’s response to the court came a week after an Israeli newspaper report alleged that police used spyware to hack the phones of numerous former ministry directors, mayors, and protest leaders.

Among the alleged targets were a key state witness in the trial against Netanyahu and some of the former prime minister’s close aides.

The prosecutor’s office told the Jerusalem District Court that police officials who looked into the matter did not find any cases of surveillance without a court order in the three corruption cases involving Netanyahu.

It asked the court for additional time for a probe conducted by the attorney general’s office to investigate the allegations more comprehensively before responding.

Netanyahu is on trial for alleged fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

JERUSALEM: Israeli police clashed with Palestinians in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah on Sunday, as a visit by a controversial far-right Jewish lawmaker inflamed tensions.

Police said two people were arrested as they tried to contain “a violent riot,” in the area of annexed East Jerusalem that has emerged as a symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli control of the city.

Scuffles broke out as Itamar Ben Gvir of the far-right Religious Zionism alliance opened a parliamentary office in Sheikh Jarrah, in what he described as an effort to show support for its Jewish residents.

More than 200,000 Jewish settlers live in East Jerusalem, in communities widely regarded as illegal under international law.

Efforts by settler groups to expand the Jewish presence in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as their future capital, have further fueled hostilities.

Ben Gvir, a Jewish nationalist with a long history of incendiary comments about Palestinians, accused police of failing to react to alleged arson attacks on a settler home in Sheikh Jarrah.

“Jewish lives have become worthless,” Ben Gvir charged in a tweet before his visit.

He told reporters in Sheikh Jarrah on Sunday that he would remain there until police “looked after the security of the (Jewish) residents.”

The Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, condemned Ben Gvir’s visit as a “provocative and escalating move that threatens to ignite … violence that will be difficult to control.”

Tensions that erupted in Sheikh Jarrah last year — as several Palestinian families faced eviction by settler groups — in part sparked the May conflict between Israel and armed groups in Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamists who control Gaza, warned there would “consequences” over Israel’s repeated “attacks” on Sheikh Jarrah.

Palestinians across East Jerusalem accuse Israeli police of using heavy-handed tactics to quell protests. Six people were arrested in the neighborhood during unrest late Saturday.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed it, in a move not recognized by most of the international community.

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian warned on Sunday that the country was once again “falling apart as if those in charge had not learned from previous experiences, which have cost the Lebanese their lives and livelihoods.”

His warning came as Lebanon prepares to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the assassination of late Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Monday amid an ongoing political dispute, fueled by Hezbollah, over how the Cabinet will approve the 2022 draft budget.

The commemoration of Feb. 14 in Beirut is taking place amid uncertainty within the Future Movement after Sunni leader and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced his withdrawal from political life and asked his parliamentary bloc not to run for the upcoming parliamentary elections under the party’s name.

Hariri will thus participate in commemorating his father’s assassination without giving his usual speech.

Meanwhile, several political and religious figures visited Rafik Hariri’s tomb in downtown Beirut on Sunday.

“How long can the list of martyrs get? Lebanon itself has almost become a martyr,” Derian commented as he stood before the tomb.

He added: “Today, Lebanon is mired in moral corruption, political failure, and financial and economic collapse.

“Honoring the martyr Hariri lies in preserving his moral and national heritage and continuing public work in light of the constructive approach that he adopted throughout his career until his last breath.”

Also speaking before the tomb, former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said: “The moment Hariri was assassinated on Feb. 14, 2005, the project to destroy the state was launched, aiming at creating multiple powers and disrupting the state’s pillars.

“The attempts to sabotage Lebanon’s parliamentary democratic system are ongoing, intending to change Lebanon’s identity and append it to the well-known regional project.”

Siniora stressed Lebanon’s need for national rescue action by reviving the principles of Rafik Hariri’s national project.

“This is based on restoring the role of the state and extending its full authority over all its lands and facilities,” said Siniora, adding that there is a need to adopt reform policies and rely on Islamic-Christian coexistence. 

Siniora stressed the importance of respecting the constitution and implementing the Taif Agreement to restore the national, economic and social wellbeing of Lebanon and the Lebanese. 

Meanwhile, Hezbollah and the Amal Movement accused President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Najib Mikati of “passing the budget in the last session without voting on it and making appointments that were not agreed upon.”

Culture Minister Mohammed Wissam Al-Murtada said: “The draft budget was still under discussion, but some proposed amendments and some figures had not yet been handed over to the ministers, despite our repeated requests.

“This means that the Cabinet did not conclude its discussion of the draft budget, did not vote on it, nor did it approve or reject it.”

Al-Murtada claimed that the appointments that were made were not on the Cabinet’s agenda.

“We objected, but suddenly and without a vote, and after the session was adjourned, we learned that the Cabinet had decided on the appointments.”

Ali Khreis, an MP with the Development and Liberation bloc headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, said that what happened “does not reflect any responsibility toward basic issues, and only reflects the reality of the law of the jungle and chaos.”

The recovery plan that the government is working on and the draft budget approved by the Cabinet face political and popular objections, mainly from Hezbollah and the Amal movement.

Activists staged a sit-in on Saturday evening near Mikati’s residence, expressing their anger at burdening the people.

The National Salvation Front said: “The ruling authority wants to place the losses of the economic and financial crisis on citizens’ shoulders in defense of the interests of its mafia-militia alliance, without taking any reform steps that help the country overcome the crisis.”

Addressing the Lebanese after approving the draft budget, Mikati said that “a correction has been made to taxes and fees based on the inflation occurring in the exchange rate,” meaning that the budget will adopt the price of an exchange platform in which the dollar exchange rate is equivalent to the black-market rate.

He noted that the economic recovery plan that was being worked on “is the basis for discussion with the (International Monetary Fund). We must set our priorities and carry out the required reforms.

“There are over 14 reform decrees that must be issued by the government, and over 30 reform laws must be issued by parliament.”

Mikati added: “We can no longer provide electricity, telecom, and water for free, and citizens should be more understanding.”

The prime minister warned: “If we do not speed up reform, we may reach a point where we may no longer be able to import wheat. If the issue had been resolved a year ago, the fiscal deficit would have been around $40 billion, while today it is around $70 billion.” 

Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Bishop of Beirut Elias Audi referred to the economic crisis during his Sunday sermon.

The bishop said: “From where will citizens get the money to pay the expected price increases when they are barely able to feed their children?

“Are citizens responsible for the state’s collapse and bankruptcy and the Lebanese pound devaluation?

“Is it not the state’s duty to put an end to corruption in its institutions, control its borders, stop waste and smuggling, curb tax and customs evasion, close useless funds and unproductive councils, and collect their dues?”