Three Israelis were killed and at least eight wounded in a shooting attack on a bus and two other vehicles in the occupied West Bank on Monday morning, the latest in a round of deadly violence in the territory.
Two women in their sixties and a man, about 40, were killed, Israeli ambulance service said. Paramedics said they provided treatment to eight people, including the driver of the bus, who was critically wounded. Militant activity, settler violence and an economic crisis have spiralled in the occupied West Bank since the Gaza war began.
All three vehicles had Israeli licence plates. The Israeli army said it was “setting up roadblocks and encircling several towns in the area”, to search for two suspected attackers who fled.
The shooting took place on Route 55 in the Palestinian village of Al Funduq, which is close to the illegal settlements of Kedumim and Karnei Shomron. Unlike most roads used by settlers in the region, the section on which the attack took place does not bypass Palestinian urban areas. There are plans to build a detour route around the village, although construction has not yet begun.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent condolences to the families of those killed and pledged that Israel “will reach the abominable murderers”.
In response to the attack, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler who lives on Kedumim, said Al Funduq, along with the northern West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus, should look like Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, which has been largely destroyed after months of Israeli bombardment and military assaults. Mr Smotrich has previously called for the destruction of Palestinian towns after attacks.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called for Israel to stop engaging with the Palestinian Authority, the body that administers some Palestinian areas of the West Bank.
“The Palestinian Authority sponsors terrorism and therefore all collaboration with it should be stopped,” he said, referring to a long-held stance among some in Israel that the PA encourages violence against Israelis. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Hamas described it as a “heroic response”.
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ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
The five pillars of Islam
Results
Stage 5:
1. Jonas Vingegaard (DEN) Team Jumbo-Visma 04:19:08
2. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 00:00:03
3. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers
4. Sergio Higuita (COL) EF Education-Nippo 00:00:05
5. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:00:06
General Classification:
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates 17:09:26
2. Adam Yates (GBR) Ineos Grenadiers 00:00:45
3. Joao Almeida (POR) Deceuninck-QuickStep 00:01:12
4. Chris Harper (AUS) Team Jumbo-Visma 00:01:54
5. Neilson Powless (USA) EF Education-Nippo 00:01:56
Brief scores:
Toss: Kerala Knights, opted to fielf
Pakhtoons 109-5 (10 ov)
Fletcher 32; Lamichhane 3-17
Kerala Knights 110-2 (7.5 ov)
Morgan 46 not out, Stirling 40
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
