Hezbollah Warns Israel It Won't Tolerate More Attacks

The leader of the militant Hezbollah group said this week's cross-border attack was a message that it will no longer tolerate any Israeli attacks against its members.

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah told thousands of supporters in south Beirut Friday that Hezbollah does not fear war and is ready if Israel provokes further violence.

It was Nasrallah's first comments since six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian general were killed on Jan. 18 in an Israeli airstrike in Syria. The group retaliated on Wednesday with a cross-border rocket attack that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded seven.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah will no longer abide by any rules of engagement, stating that Hezbollah has the right to retaliate against any future Israeli attack at the time and place of its choosing.

Israel 'Will Not Stand By' as Hezbollah Attacks

Ancient Israeli Skull May Document Migration From Africa

Long ago, humans left their evolutionary cradle in Africa and passed through the Middle East on their way to Europe. Now scientists have found the first fossil remains that appear to document that journey, a partial skull from an Israeli cave.

The skull dates from around 55,000 years ago, fitting into the period when scientists had thought the migrants inhabited the area. And details of its anatomy resemble ancient skulls from Europe, Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University in Israel wrote in an email.

He and others present the finding in a paper released Wednesday by the journal Nature. The skull, which lacks facial features and its base, was found in Manot Cave in the Galilee region of northern Israel.

The migrants are called modern humans because of their anatomy. The earliest remains of modern humans in Europe date to about 45,000 years ago.

Experts not connected with the work were impressed. "This is the first evidence we have of the humans who made this journey," apart from some ancient tools, said Eric Delson of Lehman College and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Although finding a fossil that fits so well with what was believed about the ancient migration might be expected, "we didn't have it before," he said.

"We could predict theoretically what we would find. They've found it. ... Up until now, that was a ghost."

Katerina Harvati of the University of Tuebingin in Germany said the skull gives clues about the anatomy of the migrants. Since Neanderthals were already known to inhabit the area, the skull also documents that they and modern humans co-existed there, as suspected, Harvati said.

That supports the idea that Neanderthals and modern humans interbred there, experts said. Chris Stringer of the Natural History Museum in London wrote in an email that the skull is the first fossil of a modern human from western Asia that is well-dated to the estimated time of the interbreeding, some 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

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Online:

Journal Nature: http://www.nature.com

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Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://ift.tt/PnQkWY

U.N. Peacekeeper, Israeli Soldiers Die in Border Battle

At Least 3 Dead as Hezbollah Strikes Israeli Convoy With Anti-Tank Missile

An Israeli military convoy was struck by an antitank missile along the Lebanese border Wednesday, killing two Israeli soldiers and wounding at least seven, according to statements by the Israel's military. A Spanish soldier serving with the United Nations along the border inside Lebanese territory was also killed.

It’s the most serious escalation on this border in years, the attack taking place in the contested area called Shebaa Farms, or Mount Dov, as it’s called in Israel in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Both Syria and Lebanon lay claim to that portion of land along the border.

Shortly after the attack Wednesday morning, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah officially claimed responsibility, saying it was carried out by the “heroic martyrs of Quneitra” brigade, a reference to the six Hezbollah fighters and Iranian general killed by a suspected Israeli strike in Quneitra, Syria, on Jan. 18.

Israel was expecting a response by Hezbollah, but as with any conflict in the region, there are fears that it could escalate into an all-out conflict.

Speaking on a conference call with international journalists on Wednesday, Israel Ziv, an Israeli reserve major general and former head of the army’s operations, described the situation in the north as a "very tricky and, I would say, flammable situation.”

“Israel has to contain it, to defend our interests, but not get drawn in” to those northern battlefields, Ziv said. Roughly an hour after Wednesday's initial attack, mortar shells landed near Mount Hermon in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and the IDF evacuated civilians from the area. In a statement, the IDF confirmed that it retaliated by air and land against “Hezbollah operational positions."

“We have responded to Hezbollah’s escalation,” IDF spokesman Peter Lerner tweeted. He added later, “we reserve the right to respond further against Hezbollah.”

The United Nations and the Spanish embassy in Beirut confirmed to ABC News that a Spanish soldier for the U.N.'s monitoring body UNIFIL was killed during the shelling while at his post along the border. A Spanish medical team that rushed to the post from a nearby base was unable to save him, an embassy official said.

The prime minister of Spain tweeted his condolences.

Mi más profundo pesar por el fallecimiento del militar español en #Líbano. Mi afecto y condolencias a su familia y compañeros. MR

— Mariano Rajoy Brey (@marianorajoy) January 28, 2015

Wednesday's fighting came after two rockets fired from Syria landed in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights on Tuesday. They landed in open areas and didn't hurt anyone but Israel quickly responded by firing artillery into Syria. Just before midnight, Israel struck again, hitting Syrian Army artillery positions, the IDF said.

After Wednesday's attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed to Tel Aviv from southern Israel for an emergency security meeting.

“We will not allow terror elements to disrupt the lives of our citizens and threaten their security," he tweeted. "We will know how to respond with force to whoever challenges us.”

Speaking earlier Wednesday at an event in the southern city of Sderot, Israel, Netanyahu struck a similar tone.

"To anyone who is trying to challenge us on the northern border, I suggest looking at what happened here, not far from the city of Sderot, in the Gaza Strip,” he said. "Hamas was dealt its heaviest blow ever since its founding, and the Israel Defense Forces is prepared to act forcefully in all areas.”

ABC News' Molly Hunter is in Jerusalem. ABC News' Alexander Marquardt is in Beirut.

Two Israeli Troops Killed in Cross-Border Attack

Israel Shells Lebanon After Vehicle Hit by Missile

Israel Fires Into Lebanon After Missile Strikes Vehicle

An anti-tank missile hit an Israeli military vehicle near the Israeli-Lebanese border on Wednesday, the Israeli military said. Lebanese security officials said Israel later fired at least 35 artillery shells into Lebanon.

The exchange sent tensions soaring around the volatile boundary. The military did not immediately report any casualties, and said residents of the area have been ordered to remain in their homes.

Communities along the two countries' shared border have been on edge since last week, when an airstrike attributed to Israel on Syria's Golan Heights killed six Hezbollah soldiers and an Iranian general. It was not immediately clear whether Wednesday's incident was retaliation for that airstrike.

The Shiite militant Lebanese group — a top suspect to have been behind the missile — said it had no immediate comment.

Wednesday's attack took place near Mount Dov and Shebaa Farms, a disputed tract of land where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.

Two Lebanese officials said the shelling targeted the border villages of Majidiyeh, Abbasiyeh and Kfar Chouba near the Shebaa Farms area.

On the Lebanese side, there were also no immediate reports of casualties. Families living on the border of the villages fled further within, fearing they'd be hit, said the officials, who are based in south Lebanon. They spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

One of the Lebanese officials said the incident is believed to be a "sophisticated Hezbollah operation" targeting Israeli vehicles along the border.

The attack comes after Israel launched airstrikes last Wednesday targeting Syrian army artillery posts in response to rockets fired the previous day into the Israeli-held Golan Heights.

Israel has declined to comment on any connection to the Jan. 18 airstrike, but has braced for a response to the strike, beefing up its air defenses and increasing surveillance along its northern frontier.

Israel says the Chebaa Farms is part of the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria in 1967. Lebanon and Syria say the enclave belongs to Lebanon, while the United Nations says the area is part of Syria and that Damascus and Israel should negotiate its fate.

The latest salvos raised the possibility of renewed fighting along the Lebanese-Israel border, which has remained mostly quiet since a monthlong war in the summer of 2006. Since then, Israel has responded with airstrikes and artillery fire following a number of rocket attacks and shootings but the violence remained contained.

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Karam reported from Beirut.

Israel Shells Lebanon After Vehicle Attacked: Report

Group: Israel Violated Rules of War in Strikes on Gaza Homes

A majority of Palestinians killed in dozens of Israeli attacks on Gaza homes in the 2014 war with Hamas were women, minors or the elderly, and some of the strikes violated the rules of war, an Israeli rights group said Wednesday.

The B'Tselem group called strikes on homes "one of the appalling hallmarks of the fighting" and said they were part of a policy approved at the top levels of Israeli power.

"There is no question in our minds that this is not the outcome of a low-level decision, but rather a matter of policy, a policy that in some cases has violated international humanitarian law, in other cases raises severe questions" about legality of the policy, said the group's director, Hagai El-Ad.

Israeli government officials referred requests for comment to the Israeli military, which had no immediate response. The military has said in the past it complied with the rules of combat.

Israel fought the war to halt rocket fire from Gaza.

During the fighting, Israel launched about 5,000 airstrikes and unleashed thousands of rounds of artillery at Gaza, while Gaza militants fired about 4,300 rockets and mortar rounds at Israel. More than 2,200 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians, according to U.N. figures. Sixty-seven soldiers and five civilians were killed on the Israeli side.

As part of the fighting, Israel attacked dozens of Gaza homes, claiming they were being used as military command centers or for storing weapons. In most cases, the military refused to say exactly who or what was targeted.

B'Tselem looked at 70 strikes, each of which killed at least three people — a portion of the overall total of attacks. More than 70 percent of 606 Palestinians killed in these 70 strikes were minors, women and older men, the group said.

Another Israeli group, NGO Monitor, said the count was skewed by underreporting deaths of combatants.

International law experts say even a high civilian death toll does not, on its own, constitute evidence of war crimes, and that each case has to be examined separately.

Israeli rights group questions legality of targeting Gaza homes in war

Serious questions have been raised by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem about the legality of Israel’s policy of targeting dozens of Palestinian homes during last summer’s war in Gaza – a strategy that led to hundreds of civilian deaths.

The report is the latest alleging serious breaches of international humanitarian law by Israel during the 50-day conflict. According to B’Tselem, the policy of striking residences led to the deaths of 606 people in 70 attacks on homes that it examined. Among the dead were 93 children under the age of five.

The claims come at a sensitive time for Israel following the announcement this month of an initial investigation by the international criminal court into whether war crimes were committed in Gaza.

Although a number of individual incidents are being investigated by the Israeli military attorney general, the specific policy of targeting residences is not under investigation, despite the high death toll. The issue could potentially be taken up by an ICC investigation.

The prosecution of the war is also being investigated by the UN Human Rights Council, by a commission of inquiry set up by the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and by the Israeli state comptroller, Joseph Shapira, who has been tasked with investigating decisions made by Israeli political and military leaders.

The B’Tselem research follows hard on the heels of a report by Physicians for Human Rights-Israel this month that strongly criticised the Israeli military’s system for warning Gaza’s citizens of impending strikes during the conflict, also citing the lack of safe evacuation routes and strikes against rescue teams.

In December, Amnesty International said the destruction of four high-rise buildings during the conflict was a war crime “carried out deliberately and with no military justification”.

The latest claims go further than the question of whether or not individual soldiers acted improperly, taking aim instead at Israeli ministers – including the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu – who approved the policy of attacking homes.

“This is something we had not seen in previous rounds of violence in Gaza,” said B’Tselem’s executive director Hagai El-Ad. “[Israel] should have been aware this high civilian death toll would be the outcome of this policy. And if not on day one, then certainly by day 12. Yet the policy continued until the end of the violence.”

Although B’Tselem sent a copy of the report to Netanyahu’s office for comment more than a week ago, his office had not responded by the time of publication. However, Israeli officials have criticised previous reports and investigations for focusing on Israeli actions rather than Hamas rocket fire out of Gaza.

The Israeli military rejected the report’s claims in a statement released on Wednesday morning. “The IDF does not attack residential buildings in Gaza – but rather military targets that are often located within residential buildings. The IDF categorically rejects the assertion of a policy of deliberately attacking residential homes solely on the basis that they were residences belonging to members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad.”

It said residential buildings were only attacked “where they became legitimate military targets, or when a person constituting a legitimate military target was in the structure” following an assessment “with regard to the principle of proportionality”.

The wholesale targeting of homes – often of the families of members of Gaza’s militant groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad – was a departure from the two previous conflicts in Gaza where the tactic was used relatively rarely by the Israeli military.

Although B’Tselem conceded that Hamas and others were responsible for breaches of international law by targeting civilian areas with indiscriminate rocket fire, it said that did not provide either moral or legal justification for a policy that claimed so many civilian lives.

The details in the report – including 13 incidents in which a total of 179 people died – rehearse a litany of horror. In one of the worst incidents, the bombing of the al-Dali building in Khan Younis on 29 July 2014, 34 people were killed including 18 minors.

Under international humanitarian law covering conflict, there is a two-fold test for targeting civilian sites. The first is whether the building is being used for a specific military purpose, for instance storing weapons, or as a position from which attacks are being launched. The second consideration is whether the attack confers “a clear military advantage” that outweighs any civilian deaths.

In a number of cases listed by the report, Israeli military spokesmen justified attacks on houses because of the affiliation of a resident with a militant group and his past history, rather than in terms of activity going on within the house during the conflict.

Although senior IDF commanders and the Israeli military attorney general, Danny Efroni, have argued that homes were used as “operational headquarters” by Hamas, the group says that despite requests no evidence has been provided in the vast majority of cases to justify the strikes.

Separately, the UN Relief and Works Agency announced it had been forced to suspend its cash assistance programme in Gaza for repairs to damaged and destroyed homes and for rental subsidies to the homeless because of a $585m (£385m) shortfall in aid pledged by donors but not delivered.

“We are talking about thousands of families who continue to suffer through this cold winter with inadequate shelter. People are literally sleeping amongst the rubble, children have died of hypothermia,” said the agency’s director in Gaza, Robert Turner. “$5.4bn was pledged at the Cairo conference last October and virtually none of it has reached Gaza. This is distressing and unacceptable.”

Iran Sends Warning to Israel Via US Officials

Iran said Tuesday it has sent a warning to Israel through the United States over the recent killing of an Iranian general in an alleged Israeli airstrike, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The report quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian as saying, "We told the Americans that the leaders of the Zionist regime should await the consequences of their act."

He added, "The Zionist regime has crossed our red lines."

Iranian Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, a senior commander in the Revolutionary Guard, was killed along with six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters in a Jan. 18 airstrike in the Syrian-controlled part of the disputed Golan Heights. Both Iran and Hezbollah blamed Israel for the strike; the Israeli government refused to comment.

Amirabdollahian says Iran delivered the message to U.S. officials via diplomatic channels. He did not elaborate.

Iran and the U.S cut diplomatic ties after militant Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the 1979 revolution and held a group of American diplomats for 444 days.

The two nations normally exchange diplomatic messages through the Swiss embassy, which looks after U.S. interests in Iran. But diplomats from both countries also meet directly on other occasions — such as the current negotiations to limit the scope of the Iranian nuclear program in exchange for easing harsh international sanctions against Tehran.

Amirabdollahian's remarks came during a commemoration ceremony in Tehran for the slain general and the Hezbollah fighters. In the same ceremony, Gen. Hossein Salami, acting commander of the Guard, said Iran will retaliate soon.

"We tell (Israel) to await retaliation, but we will decide about its timing, place and the strength," he said, according to the IRNA report.

Allahdadi is one of the highest ranking Iranian officers known to have been killed abroad in decades. Another senior Guard commander, Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, was killed during a battle against the Islamic State group in Samarra, Iraq last month.

Majority Shiite Iran acknowledges it has sent military advisers to both Iraq and to Syria, where they are aiding embattled President Bashar Assad. But Tehran denies the presence of Iranian combat forces.

Israel Says 2 Rockets From Syria Strike Golan Heights

At least two rockets launched from Syria struck the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights on Tuesday and Israel responded with artillery fire, the Israeli military said.

The fire comes after an airstrike last week in Syria attributed to Israel that killed six members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah and an Iranian general. Israel has braced for a response to that strike, beefing up its air defenses and increasing surveillance along its northern frontier.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said the fire "appeared to be intentional." He declined to comment on whether the fire may have been connected to the strike last week.

A message on Lerner's Twitter account said Israel "responded with artillery towards the positions that launched the attack."

The military said sirens sounded in communities in the Golan Heights earlier Tuesday. It said that it had evacuated and closed a popular ski resort following the strike. No injuries were reported.

Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau overlooking northern Israel, from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed it.

Fighting in neighboring Syria's civil war has spilled over to Israel in the past. Mortar shells have exploded sporadically inside Israeli territory since the conflict began, sometimes causing minor damage.

Israel believes most fire is errant shots but has at times accused Syria of aiming at Israeli targets. Israeli troops have returned fire on several occasions.

Destitute Holocaust Survivors Struggle in Israel

Iran Guard Vows to Punish Israel for General Killed in Syria

Iran's Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday that Israel will be punished for killing one of its generals in an airstrike in Syria that also killed six Lebanese Hezbollah fighters.

Nasser Soltani, a senior Guard commander, said "Israel will certainly pay for what it did." He spoke during a ceremony Wednesday for Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ali Allahdadi, who will be buried in his hometown of Sirjan in southeastern Iran on Thursday.

Iran has repeatedly vowed to retaliate against any attacks by Israel or Western powers in recent years. It is unlikely to respond militarily, but may step up the support it already provides to armed groups like the Palestinian Hamas and the Lebanese Hezbollah movements.

State TV said Allahdadi was "martyred while performing his advisory mission" in Syria.

Iran and Hezbollah, close allies of Syrian President Bashar Assad, blamed Israel for Sunday's airstrike in the Golan Heights. Israel, which is believed to be behind a number of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.

Allahdadi is one of the highest ranking Iranian officers known to have been killed abroad in decades. Another senior Guard commander, Brig. Gen. Hamid Taqavi, was killed during a battle against the Islamic State extremist group in Samarra, Iraq last month.

Shiite-majority Iran says it has sent military advisers to assist Syria and Iraq in battling Sunni extremist groups, but Tehran has denied sending combat forces.

"The path of the martyr Allahdadi is unstoppable. It will continue until the liberation of the sacred Quds (Jerusalem) and elimination of the Zionist regime as a disgraceful blot in the region," Iran's chief Guard commander, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying Wednesday.

Gen. Akbar Fotouhi, another senior Guard commander, accused Israel of being in league with the extremist groups fighting in Syria and Iraq.

"The link between the Zionist regime (Israel) and the Islamic State and extremists became evident in his martyrdom," he was quoted by state TV as saying Wednesday.

Several wounded in Tel Aviv bus attack

At least nine people have been injured on a bus in central Tel Aviv – injuring four seriously – in a knife attack by a Palestinian man who was then shot and arrested while trying to escape.

The attack – which police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said was being treated as a terrorist incident – took place at about 7.15am on a number 40 bus crowded with commuters during the rush hour.

According to Israeli police, the man boarded the bus on Menachem Begin Road and stabbed the driver in the chest after the vehicle had travelled about 400 metres from the stop. The driver was identified as 55-year-old Herzl Biton.

Pictures of the weapon used in the attack showed a large kitchen knife. Its blade had been bent and its wooden handle broken off. It was not immediately clear if all of those injured in the attack suffered stab wounds.

“Shortly after he boarded the bus, the assailant stabbed the driver several times but … he resisted the attack and in this way the terrorist was surprised,” Tel Aviv police chief Bentzi Sau told reporters at the scene.

In their first comments after the incident, senior Israeli officials suggested there had been no warning prior to the attack and that it was unclear if the man belonged to a militant group.

A vehicle ferrying prisoners to a court hearing was following the bus and officers pursued the assailant as he fled into a nearby street where he was shot in the leg and arrested.

Speaking to army radio, one of the prison service officers involved, identified as Benny Botershvili, said: “We saw the bus swerve to the side … then stop at a green light. Suddenly, we saw people running out of the bus and when we saw them shouting for help, we jumped out (of our vehicle) and I and three others started running after the terrorist. At first we fired in the air, then at his legs. The terrorist fell, we handcuffed him and turned him over to police.”

Moses Collins, a witness who was in a bus behind, described seeing the bus in front swerving in the road and stop before a man ran out of it. As passengers on Collins’ bus got off, they could see injured passengers covered in blood.

Another witness told the Israeli news website Ynet: “We were in our car behind the bus. Suddenly we saw people getting off and running, screaming, and crying hysterically. We didn’t know what to do. We were scared he was going to come towards us. Several ambulances arrived and they just evacuated everyone.”

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, did not claim responsibility but praised Wednesday’s attack as “brave and heroic” in a tweet by Izzat Risheq, a Hamas leader residing in Qatar.

The stabbing was a “natural response to the occupation and its terrorist crimes against our people”, Risheq said.

The incident took place after period of relative calm following a summer and autumn marked by violence in Israel and the occupied Palestinian Territories.

The stabbing is the latest in a series of “lone-wolf” attacks that have plagued Israel in recent months. About a dozen people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, including five people attacked with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue.

Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, though there have been other attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank. In Jerusalem, the violence followed months of tension between Jews and Palestinians in east Jerusalem, the section of the city the Palestinians demand as their future capital.

The area experienced unrest and near-daily attacks by Palestinians after a wave of violence last summer, capped by a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

Israeli Police: Palestinian Stabs Passengers on Tel Aviv Bus

A Palestinian man stabbed nine people, wounding some of them seriously, on a bus in central Tel Aviv before he was chased down, shot and arrested, Israeli police said Wednesday, describing the assault as a "terror attack." The Islamic militant Hamas group praised the stabbing.

The assault was the latest in a spate of attacks in which Palestinians have used knives, acid and vehicles as weapons in recent months, leaving dead and injured. Police identified the assailant as a Palestinian from the West Bank and said he had entered Israel illegally.

The assailant, who was on the bus himself, travelling with the other passengers, began stabbing people, including the driver, then managed to get out of the bus and started fleeing the scene.

Officers from a prison service who happened to be nearby and saw the bus swerving out of control and a man running away, gave chase, shot the man in the leg, wounding him lightly and subsequently arrested him.

"We believe it was a terror attack," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. He said four people were seriously hurt and another five sustained lighter wounds. The stabber was in custody and the police are questioning him now, he said.

The stabbing is the latest in a type of "lone-wolf" attacks that have plagued Israel in recent months. About a dozen people have been killed in Palestinian attacks, including five people killed with guns and meat cleavers in a bloody assault on a Jerusalem synagogue.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Gaza Strip did not claim responsibility but praised Wednesday's attack as "brave and heroic" in a tweet by Izzat Risheq, a Hamas leader residing in Qatar.

The stabbing is a "natural response to the occupation and its terrorist crimes against our people," Risheq said.

Israeli officials say the attacks stem from incitement by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders.

Most of the violence has occurred in Jerusalem, though there have been other attacks in Tel Aviv and the West Bank.

In Jerusalem, the violence came after months of tensions between Jews and Palestinians in east Jerusalem — the section of the city the Palestinians demand as their future capital. The area experienced unrest and near-daily attacks by Palestinians following a wave of violence last summer, capped by a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza.

Much of the recent unrest has stemmed from tensions surrounding a key holy site in Jerusalem's Old City. It is the holiest site for Jews, who call it the Temple Mount because of the revered Jewish Temples that stood there in biblical times. Muslims refer to it as the Noble Sanctuary, and it is their third holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

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Associated Press writer Karin Laub contributed to this report.

Man Shot and Captured After Stabbing Nine on Israel Bus

Israel on High Alert for Possible Hezbollah Retaliation

Israel is on high alert for possible attacks from the Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah following an airstrike on Hezbollah fighters in Syria, Israeli defense officials said Tuesday.

Israel has boosted deployment of its "Iron Dome" anti-missile aerial defense system along its northern frontier, which borders Lebanon and Syria, and has increased surveillance activities in the area, the officials said. Israel's Security Cabinet is scheduled to meet to discuss a potential escalation in violence, they said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss security deliberations publicly.

Hezbollah claims Israel carried out Sunday's strike on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, which killed a prominent Hezbollah fighter, a senior Iranian general, and five other Hezbollah members. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied its role in the strike.

The prominent fighter killed, Jihad Mughniyeh, was the son of Imad Mughniyeh — a top Hezbollah operative widely considered to have built Hezbollah's military operations infrastructure and the second most revered figure inside Hezbollah. He was assassinated in 2008 in Damascus in a bombing that Hezbollah says was carried out by Israel's Mossad spy agency.

Thousands of mourners marched in a Beirut funeral procession Monday for Jihad Mughniyeh, chanting "Death to Israel."

Since Syria's conflict began in March 2011, Israel has reportedly carried out several airstrikes in Syria that have targeted sophisticated weapons systems, including Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles and Iranian-made missiles, believed to be destined for Hezbollah.

The last such airstrike was in early December, when warplanes struck near Damascus' international airport, as well as outside a town close to the Syria-Lebanon border. Israel has not commented on its role in those strikes.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in an interview last week, said Hezbollah reserves the right to retaliate for those attacks. He also reiterated that Hezbollah may retaliate at any time for the assassination of Mughniyeh senior.

Iran General Killed in Suspected Israel Strike on Syria

SMH cartoon criticised as antisemitic found to breach press council standards

A cartoon published in the Sydney Morning Herald that linked the Jewish faith with the Israeli rocket attacks on Gaza has breached the Australian Press Council’s standards of practice.

The cartoon by Glen Le Lievre was published in July 2014 alongside a Saturday column by veteran writer Mike Carlton.

The reaction to the cartoon and the column resulted in Carlton’s sudden resignation.

Six months later, the press council has ruled that the cartoon caused greater offence to readers than was justifiable in the public interest and the paper published the adjudication on Saturday.

The cartoon depicted “an elderly man with a large nose, wearing the distinctively Jewish head covering called a kippah or yarmulke, and sitting in an armchair emblazoned with the Star of David”, the council said. “He was pointing a TV remote control device at an exploding cityscape, implied to be Gaza.”

“A linkage with Israeli nationality might have been justifiable in the public interest, despite being likely to cause offence,” the ruling said. “But the same cannot be said of the implied linkage with the Jewish faith that arose from inclusion of the kippah and the Star of David.”

The newspaper told the council after complaints were made against the cartoon that in hindsight it agreed that it had placed gratuitous emphasis on the Jewishness of its subject “and in doing so had inappropriately emphasised religious persuasion rather than Israeli nationality, thereby causing offence”.

The newspaper said in its defence that it had published a 650-word apology a week later.

In the wake of the furore extra layers of approval have been added and the editor-in-chief and news director had attended seminars with the Jewish Board of Deputies, who had complained about the cartoon and the column.

The paper stood by the column but insisted Carlton apologise to readers he had offended in emails.

Carlton told Guardian Australia at the time that he believed he had been suspended because of the language he used with readers but also because of a vigorous campaign to undermine him by News Corp.

The Australian had reported that some readers who wrote to complain about his views on the conflict in Gaza received emails telling them to “fuck off”.

“The images from Gaza are searing, a gallery of death and horror,” Carlton had written. “A dishevelled Palestinian man cries out in agony, his blood-soaked little brother dead in his arms.”

After the column Carlton received a torrent of abuse on Twitter and in emails from people who were angered by his views.

The council made a point of congratulating the Herald on its response to complaints and in an apparent reference to its critics at News Corp Australia said “the council commends this approach to other publications”.

Under the APC’s general principles, newspapers who are members “should balance the public interest with the sensibilities of their readers, particularly when the material, such as photographs, could reasonably be expected to cause offence” and that publications should not place any gratuitous emphasis on race, religion or nationality.

Israeli Strike in Syria Kills Senior Hezbollah Figures

Israeli Strikes Kill Hezbollah Fighters in Syria

A Hezbollah official says an Israeli strike in the Syrian Golan Heights killed Jihad Mughniyeh, the son of a slain top military commander, and four other fighters from the Lebanese Shiite militant group.

The official said the Sunday strike targeted two Hezbollah vehicles as fighters were inspecting positions in the area of Mazaare al-Amal in the mountainous plateau close to the Israeli-controlled frontier.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to the media.

Jihad is the son of Emad Mughniyeh, a top Hezbollah operative assassinated in 2008 in Damascus. Hezbollah blames Israel for the killing.

Hezbollah fighters have been battling alongside forces loyal to the Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Israel's military did not comment on the report.

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France and Israel Mourn Victims of Terror Attacks

Children in crises: NGOs must adopt stronger protection systems

D uring the Sierra Leone war, an estimated 10,000 children were recruited or used by armed forces and groups, and at least 692,000 children suffered sexual abuse. In 2002, almost half the states engaged in conflict were using children under the age of 15 in their armed forces. But amid the devastation of war, children are often forgotten with the full extent of their suffering only emerging afterwards.

New data shows that 1 billion girls and boys live in areas that were affected by armed conflict in 2013 or 2014. Over the last decade, more than 250 million people were affected by disasters each year – more than half were children.

At present their are complex humanitarian crises in Syria, Iraq, South Sudan, Palestine and Gaza, and Central African Republic, as well as a devastating Ebola outbreak in parts of west Africa. During such events lives are uprooted and the systems working to keep children safe – in their homes, schools and communities – may be undermined or damaged.

In times of crisis, boys and girls face increased risk of all forms of violence and exploitation. They may be separated from their families, trafficked, recruited or used by armed forces and groups, economically exploited, or physically or sexually abused. Thousands of children are killed or injured every year by explosive weapons and landmines. In the long term, children’s survival and development are jeopardised as their societies’ ability to invest in their future is weakened.

But there are ways to protect children in emergencies. Evidence repeatedly shows that protecting children in humanitarian action saves lives, both immediately and in the long-term. Strengthening child protection systems is one of the most cost-effective ways to build resilience and promote sustainable development. The costs of inaction – for individuals, homes, schools and communities – can be tremendous.

A recent review by the ChildFund Alliance and the Overseas Development Institute estimates that the annual global damage caused by physical, psychological and sexual violence against children reaches $7tn, or 8% of global GDP.

One way to reduce stress and support children’s healthy development is through recreation and play. In Syria, for example, where 5.6 million children are estimated to be in need of humanitarian assistance, Unicef supports the running of child-friendly spaces and mobile teams to restore a sense of normalcy and help children cope with the daily stresses of living through war. Unaccompanied and other at-risk children are identified and referred through close connections with education, health and social service systems. Where necessary, children can access specialised psychosocial care and other services.

Efforts to protect and engage children need to start immediately and continue long after the initial crisis has past. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) runs support programmes for parents raising children in some of the toughest circumstances imaginable; in Burundi, Tanzania and Thailand where local communities, refugees and migrants are rebuilding their lives; in Uganda and Liberia where communities are recovering from long civil wars; and in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria where families are struggling to survive.

Two new studies show that supporting parents and primary caregivers by showing alternatives to harsh discipline can reduce levels of family violence and strengthen children’s protective environment in the long-term. After learning about non-violent parenting techniques over the 10- to 12-week IRC course, caregivers demonstrated reductions in physical and verbal punishments and reported improved communications and collaborative problem solving with children, as well as between spouses. Some participants also reported teaching the new alternative parenting techniques to neighbours, thereby contributing to the reduction of violence in the wider community.

Strong child protection systems can mitigate the impacts of conflicts and crises on boys and girls. Children have the right to be protected from harm and child protection is a vital investment, enabling children and young people to rebuild their own lives and the futures of their societies.

Helen Kearney is communications specialist at the Child Protection Working Group. Follow @HelenFKearney on Twitter.

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Bodies of 4 Jewish Victims of Paris Attack Arrive in Israel

The bodies of four Jewish victims of a Paris terror attack on a kosher supermarket have arrived in Israel for burial.

The bodies were brought by plane that landed early Tuesday morning at Israel's Ben Gurion International Airport outside of Tel Aviv. The burial was to take place later in the day at a Jerusalem cemetery.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other public figures are to attend the ceremony.

The four were killed in the hostage standoff on Friday at a kosher supermarket in Paris. They are among 17 people who died in a wave of terror attacks carried out last week by militants claiming allegiance to al-Qaida and the Islamic State extremist groups.

Premier: Jews Killed in Paris Attack to Be Buried in Israel

The bodies of four French Jews killed in a hostage standoff in a Paris grocery store will be buried in Israel, Israel's prime minister said Sunday.

In a statement issued from Paris, Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had "acceded to the request of the families of the victims of the murderous terror attack" and directed "all the relevant government bodies" to assist in bringing the bodies to Israel. A funeral is tentatively set for Tuesday.

The Jews were killed in the hostage standoff at the kosher supermarket in Paris. They were among 17 people killed in a wave of terror attacks carried out over three days last week by militants claiming allegiance to the Islamic State extremist group and al-Qaida.

Netanyahu is in Paris with more than 40 world leaders to attend a massive rally to honor victims of the attacks.

Netanyahu on Saturday said he will try to increase immigration of French Jews and others in Europe suffering from a "rising tide of anti-Semitism." He also asked French President Francois Hollande to maintain heightened security at Jewish institutions.

Last year, France topped the immigration list to Israel, according to the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency. Nearly 7,000 new immigrants came in 2014, double the number from the previous year.

I came to London as Arab Idol winner: but as a Palestinian my sense of injustice is always close by | Mohammed Assaf

What struck me most during a recent visit to Britain – my first ever – was the sense of secure continuity. Governments come and go, society is always changing, but the rights of the people are protected constantly. Hearing Big Ben echo across Parliament Square before my concert in Westminster, it seemed symbolic of this history and permanence.

It is the opposite for Palestinians. I grew up in the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, where thousands of displaced men, women and children have lived under Israeli control since 1967. Gaza has turned into what the international community has called a prison camp – a consequence of the founding of Israel in 1948, and Palestinian families being driven out of their land. This event is referred to as nakba, or the catastrophe. Our own rights have since amounted to nothing.

There is a near permanent conflict between Israeli occupiers and us Palestinians. Friends and neighbours were among thousands, including hundreds of children, massacred over the summer. When I was a boy, I played football in the streets. Adults would shout at us to go elsewhere because of the dangers of attack by Israeli forces. I thought about that when four kids were murdered on a beach while kicking a ball around in July. Nowhere is safe. We are trapped. I know exactly how that feels when bombs and bullets are pouring down on defenceless civilians, and there is nowhere to run. It’s like absolute hell on earth.

I’m 25 now, and there have been Israeli military campaigns regularly throughout my life, with entire communities being destroyed. That doesn’t mean we just give up. In life you have to keep trying to overcome oppression. I strive to oppose injustice as a musician, but initially I wasn’t even allowed out of the blockaded strip. I took a huge risk travelling to Cairo for the Arab Idol competition more than a year ago, spending two whole days held up by Egyptian forces at the border. In the end I had to sneak into auditions because I was so late, but it was all worth it. Performing a Palestinian anthem as around 120 million people watched on television for the final was incredible.

The siege of Gaza and military occupation in the West Bank were briefly forgotten when I won the contest. Palestinians celebrated in the street and momentarily did not think about the constant threats to safety, all the shortages, high unemployment, the lack of freedom of movement, and all the violence and discrimination that come with subjugation. That night they were immensely happy and yearning for life more than ever.

My songs are about love, freedom and patriotism – I dedicate everything to my people and my country. I haven’t left it – I performed concerts in places such as Nazareth for Christmas. Otherwise I am just touring, promoting my first album, which is called Assaf. There are 11 songs, I got an MTV award in Scotland for best Middle East act, and the Oscar-nominated director Hany Abu Assad is already shooting a film about my life. After everything I had been through I am still overwhelmed by my success.

Last October the UK parliament symbolically voted to recognise Palestine as an independent state, and this extremely important move is being replicated across Europe. It’s about time there was official recognition, - we simply want to join the rest of humanity. I hope that this year the UN will also vote in favour of Palestinian statehood and the end of Israeli occupation. There have been numerous war-crime allegations made against Israel, and with Palestine signing the Rome statute to join the international criminal court, international justice must start playing a stronger role. This is especially so as illegal land grabs increase.

I want to give hope to all Palestinian youths and put their message across to the world. My music can be a powerful force for change. As the UNRWA goodwill ambassador for Palestine, I try to raise money for the nearly half a million people who were made homeless in Gaza last summer and also for their psychological support. I witnessed this devastation when I was back in Gaza during and after the carnage, delivering aid and lifting spirits. But reconstruction and assistance alone are not enough. These atrocities must stop.

As a Palestinian you are reminded of your wonderful homeland wherever you are in the world. It’s in your soul and in your blood, but our sense of injustice is never far away.

Middle East snowstorm prompts fears for Syrian refugees

High winds, blizzards and heavy rain have battered the Middle East, from Lebanon to Israel, cutting power to thousands and bringing fresh misery to refugees displaced by conflicts in Syria and Gaza.

Snow and hail fell heavily in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley on Wednesday, where 400,000 Syrian refugees are sheltering in camps.

Near the town of Anjar, men used brooms and sticks to try to clear the heavy snow from the tops of refugee tents, fearing that the weight might cause the shelters to collapse. Inside the tents, adults could be seen huddling around wood-burning stoves to try to keep warm.

According to the Red Cross, two Syrians including a six-year-old child died during the storm in a mountainous area of south Lebanon.

The storm is forecast to last several days, threatening further disruption in Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

The UN refugee agency UNHCR distributed cash and fuel coupons to more than 80,000 refugee families before the storm hit.. However, it said serious gaps remained in provisions for Syrian refugees.

“We are worried that tents will be flooded. Refugees who don’t have proper access to clean water or can’t store drinking water will be in severe difficulties if we don’t reach them in the next two days,” Lauriane Gauny, programme manager in the Bekaa valley with the aid agency Oxfam, told Reuters.

Ali Eshtawi, a refugee from Homs who spoke by phone from a camp near the Syrian border, said snow had caused three tents to collapse, leaving 19 people without shelter. “There’s no firewood, no diesel,” he said.

The storm forced the closure of all Lebanese ports and briefly shut Beirut’s international airport.

Elsewhere, Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip declared a state of emergency. In Gaza, coastal areas were evacuated due to storm surges.

In Jerusalem there was panic buying in supermarkets before the arrival of the storm, and police closed the two main roads into the city to avoid a repetition of last year’s scenes when hundreds of cars were stranded on the city approaches during the worst winter storm in recent memory.

Schools and other government buildings were also closed and emergency services were put on alert. Israel’s police commissioner, Yohanan Danino, advised people to avoid Jerusalem until the storm had passed.

The cold weather was felt as far away as Turkey, where Turkish Airlines cancelled dozens of internal flights. Night-time temperatures in Ankara were forecast to plunge to -17C.

Hamas member Hussam Kawasmeh gets life for Israeli teenagers’ killings

An Israeli military court has sentenced a Palestinian to life in prison over the killing of three Israeli youths, whose abduction in the occupied West Bank set off a chain of events leading to the 50-day Gaza war last summer.

The court found on Tuesday that Hussam Kawasmeh, a member of Hamas, planned the abduction in which Eyal Yifrach, 19, and Gil-ad Sha’er and Naftali Frankel, both 16, were shot dead while hitchhiking in June.

Kawasmeh was arrested in August and charged with murder. A three-judge panel sentenced him to three life terms, according to a court document released to the media.

Two Hamas operatives suspected of having killed the youngsters after picking them up on a road near a Jewish settlement died in a firefight with Israeli forces at their West Bank hideout in September.

The bodies of the three Israelis were found nearly three weeks after their disappearance.

In an alleged revenge attack in July, a Palestinian teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, was abducted and burned to death in Jerusalem by three suspected Jewish assailants, who have since been charged with his murder.

Khdeir’s death and sweeping arrests by Israel of suspected Hamas fighters across the West Bank led to clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police in East Jerusalem and cross-border rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

A seven-week Gaza war ensued in July and August in which, according to the Palestinian health ministry, more than 2,100 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were killed. Sixty-seven Israeli soldiers and six civilians in Israel were also killed.

Israeli Military Divided Over Gaza War Probes

A fierce debate is raging within Israel's military over the extent to which soldiers should be held legally accountable for their actions during last year's Gaza war, with commanders increasingly at odds with military lawyers.

The dispute has set off a firestorm in Israel, where many say the legal threat would shackle soldiers in any future battle, lower their morale and shatter a sacred trust on which Israel's compulsory military service relies.

But with the Palestinians announcing their application last week to the International Criminal Court, the decision to investigate becomes all the more pressing: A robust Israeli inquiry into its military's actions could be essential in thwarting an embarrassing and potentially incriminating outside probe.

Israel launched the operation in Gaza on July 8 in what it said was a mission to halt relentless rocket fire by Hamas militants. During 50 days of fighting, more than 2,100 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry and the United Nations. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and 6 civilians were killed.

Israel has defended the operation as an act of self-defense and blamed Hamas for the heavy civilian death toll, saying the militant group used residential areas for cover. But critics have pointed to the heavy Palestinian civilian death toll and questioned whether Israel's response was proportionate.

Israel has also come under fire from critics who say it fails to thoroughly investigate its military operations or prosecute soldiers for abuses.

Israel says it does investigate its actions, although those inquiries rarely lead to criminal punishment. Following a similar operation in Gaza in early 2009, the army convicted a total of four soldiers on various charges, including looting, improper use of a weapon and life-endangering conduct. The most serious sentence was a three-and-a-half month prison term.

Israel's outgoing military chief, Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, has walked a fine line in the debate, trying both to soothe the troops' worries and explain the need for inquiries.

"Soldiers and commanders know they have the full support of the command level," Gantz said last month. "I feel very secure with our support and with the investigations, which are a necessary tool for our continued improvement."

Israel's military advocate general, Danny Efroni, is seen as the leader of the drive to investigate soldiers. Efroni and his legal team have received more than 100 complaints regarding incidents from last summer's war and plan to conduct criminal investigations into at least 10, including the deaths of four boys in an explosion on a Gaza beach on July 16 and an attack on a U.N. school on July 24.

Efroni's perspective, military analysts say, views an internal investigation as preferable to a potential probe by the International Criminal Court. The military did not answer a request seeking comment.

The Palestinians are expected to join the court within about 60 days. Once that happens, they can submit war crimes claims against Israel. However, if Israel can show the court that it has carried out its own investigation in good faith, it could avoid an outside probe.

"Some in the military say 'let us investigate, we have nothing to hide. The moment we investigate, international law won't intrude. There will be no international inquiry and no trial in The Hague,'" said Ilan Katz, a former military deputy advocate general.

Israeli Attacked by Men Singing Anti-Semitic Songs in Berlin

Berlin police are investigating an attack on an Israeli citizen who was beaten by a group of young men after he asked them to stop singing anti-Semitic songs on the subway in the German capital on New Year's Eve.

Police spokesman Martin Dahms said Monday that police have not yet been able to identify the attackers, but are evaluating video footage of the incident.

The victim, 26-year-old Shahak Shapira, who lives in Berlin, told The Associated Press that after he asked the seven men to stop chanting anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli songs and slurs, he recorded them on his cell phone.

When he got off at the next subway stop, the men, who Shapira said were speaking both German and Arabic, followed him and demanded he delete his video. When he refused, some of the men spat on him and beat and kicked him, injuring his head.

The World Jewish Congress condemned the attack sharply and said the incident illustrated the growing exposure of Jews to violent forms of anti-Semitism in Europe.

"Just like everybody else, Israeli citizens have a right to live in Europe in safety, without being singled out on the basis of their nationality or faith," WJC Associate Executive Vice-President Maram Stern told the AP.

Stern called on the authorities to do "everything in their power to prevent such attacks."

ISIS-Linked Cell Arrested in West Bank: Israel

Israel Withholds Palestinian Tax Revenues After ICC Move

Israeli media reports that the government is halting transfers of the tax revenue it collects on behalf of the Palestinians in retaliation for their move to join the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the substance of the reports on Saturday but refused to elaborate.

Under the current interim peace accords, Israel collects taxes for the Palestinians and transfers them each month to the Palestinian Authority. December's frozen transfer amounts to about $127 million.

Joining the court means the Palestinians could pursue war crimes charges against Israel. The move transforms Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' relations with Israel from tense to openly hostile. It's meant to pressure Israel into withdrawing from the occupied territories that Palestinians demand for a future state.

U.S. Diplomats in Standoff With Israeli Settlers

Najia Warshaga: injured Palestinian girl who became symbol of Gaza war

The place where nine-year-old Najia Warshaga lives in Beit Lahiya, Gaza, with her mother, Majdolen, and her five-year-old brother, Ali, was once the garage of a three-storey building. Fifty-metres square, there are a few mattresses on the ground for sitting and sleeping, a few blankets for warmth piled in the corner.

Their own home was bombed. They stayed for a while with an uncle at his home. Now they live here.

The place has a little toilet which Majdolen, 31, cooks next to. The family’s laundry hangs on a rope warmed by the winter sun.

It is a stark, cold and unhygienic place for which she has to pay 300 shekels a month (£50) despite having no income.

In August, her daughter, Najia, became a symbol of the Gaza conflict – a picture of an injured girl, her weeping face smeared with blood. The images was taken by the Associated Press photographer Khalil Hamra and published on the front pages around the world.

The photo of Najia that became a symbol of the Gaza conflict. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

The family had fled their rented apartment in Beit Lahiya to the shelter of a UN school in nearby Jabaliya, also in northern Gaza, then to a second school where the family had sought sanctuary.

Except it was not safe. Crowded with about 3,300 people, Najia and her family were sleeping in a classroom with seven other families when it was struck by a missile at 4.30am. Fifteen people were killed, and more than 100 were injured, including Najia, Majdolen and Ali.

These days Najia is a symbol of something else.

In a coastal strip where – according to some estimates – 100,000 people still remain displaced, Najia and her family have become a metaphor for the limbo into which many Palestinians have been pushed by the Gaza war.

Najia has become a representative of not only the war but an aftermath that has barely been ameliorated.

The nine-year-old seems a little less shy and withdrawn than last time the Guardian met her. Then she was almost catatonic, wrapping herself – her mother said then – in a blanket even in the August heat. Five months on she is more able to speak and smiles from time to time. But the trauma is still present.

“I am OK now, but I still dream of the days of the war,” Najia says, echoing what many other children caught up in the violent events of the summer also describe. Nine days after the attack she had recounted to the Guardian what happened. “I was in classroom number one, sleeping,” she said then. “There was a huge boom. My mother hugged us, then another missile landed. I was screaming and crying.”

Now, the worst nightmare, she say, is of the attack itself – being wakened out of sleep by the explosion into a world of smoke and carnage.

“I dream of the moment when the school was hit. I have this nightmare that the classroom is falling in on us. Most of the nights I have that dream.”

There is still a piece of shrapnel in her leg which – like many other injured Palestinians – she has not been able to have removed because Gaza’s healthcare system is still recovering from the conflict.

With the onset of the cooler weather – and the winter rainstorms – the shrapnel seems to bother her more. “I wish I could get it treated,” she says. “The pain in my leg bothers me more now it is winter. The doctors told me that they can’t take it out.”

Her mother is more worried, however, about what the experience has done to her children psychologically.

“Najia still can’t sleep like before the war, and she insists on sleeping next to me. She gets scared of every noise around.

“One night recently there were some Israeli jets flying at night. She got up in panic and asked that we go to a neighbour’s house to sleep there. And we did it because it was the only way to calm her down.”

What Majdolen describes is familiar to many parents in Gaza. Child surveys conducted after the war by several UN agencies and others paint a bleakly familiar picture including post-traumatic stress disorder, bed wetting, increased levels of aggression and anxiety, and nightmares.

More positive is that Najia is back at school, enjoying the normality of learning and life in the classroom with her friends. It offers her a sense of hope in the future.

“The teachers at school are good and they treat me well. I love my school,” she says. “I want to complete my studies and go to university.”

Her father is in prison for fraud but it is hard for her mother to work with two children under 10 to care for.

Majdolen is also still recovering from injuries to her head, eye and back.

Without income, the family has been dependent on handouts from neighbours and family and UN food baskets every several months. “My family is poor but my mother gives me some money to pay for the expenses. I don’t need much,” says Majdolen. “But I need to have a life like other people … I don’t know what to do.”