1 Israeli killed and 3 wounded in West Bank stabbing as UN approves Trump’s Gaza plan

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian attackers stabbed an Israeli to death and wounded three more in the West Bank on Tuesday before being shot down by troops in the latest violence to rock the occupied territory, the Israeli military said.

The attack follows a spate of settler attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank.

The violence came a day after the U.N. Security Council gave its backing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s blueprint to secure and govern Gaza. Hamas rejected the plan as other countries signaled excitement and readiness to help implement it.

Violence flares in West Bank

The Israeli military said the stabbing took place at the Gush Etzion junction south of Jerusalem, a site of many past attacks by Palestinian militants.

Israel’s emergency rescue services said a man in his 60s died of stab wounds at the scene. Three other people were hospitalized, including a woman in serious condition and a teenager in moderate condition. The military said Israeli troops then opened fire, killing two Palestinian attackers.

Also Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s local bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, said Israeli forces shot a cameraman for Al-Jazeera in the legs while he was covering a protest in the West Bank city of Tulkarem. The military did not respond to a request for comment.

On Monday, Israeli settlers launched a rampage through the Palestinian village of al-Jab’a, torching homes and cars. The violence drew a rare condemnation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli leaders.

Israel’s military sent soldiers and police to the village Monday after reports of fires and vandalism. Hours earlier, clashes had erupted between Israeli security forces and settlers defending an unauthorized outpost on a nearby hill facing evacuation and demolition on Monday, according to COGAT, the Israeli military body that deals with civilians in the West Bank.

Israeli police said earlier that six suspects were arrested in confrontations during the demolitions, with dozens of settlers entrenched and throwing stones and metal bars and burning tires.

Netanyahu and Hamas react to UN vote

Netanyahu on Tuesday applauded the U.N. approval of Trump’s plan for postwar Gaza.

“We believe that President Trump’s plan will lead to peace and prosperity because it insists upon full demilitarization, disarmament and the deradicalization of Gaza,” Netanyahu’s office wrote on X.

The resolution provides a wide mandate for an international force to provide security in war-devastated Gaza, approves a transitional authority called the Board of Peace to be overseen by Trump and envisions a possible future path to an independent Palestinian state.

The plan calls for the stabilization force to ensure “the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups.” It authorizes the force “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate” in compliance with international law, which is U.N. language for the use of military force.

Hamas said Monday that the force’s mandate including disarmament “strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation.” It said the resolution did not “meet the level of our Palestinian people’s political and humanitarian demands and rights.” Hamas demanded that any international force be under U.N. supervision, deploy only at Gaza’s borders to monitor the ceasefire and operate exclusively with Palestinian institutions.

Palestinian Authority welcomes resolution after statehood is included

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution and said it was ready to immediately implement it, in cooperation with the U.S., the U.N., and other Arab and European states.

Palestinians largely view the PA, which governs semiautonomous zones in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, as weak and corrupt. The authority’s security coordination with Israel is extremely unpopular, and many Palestinians see it as a subcontractor of the occupation.

The U.N. vote came about following nearly two weeks of negotiations, when Arab nations and the Palestinians pressed the United States to strengthen language about Palestinian self-determination. The proposal still gives no timeline or guarantee for an independent state, only saying it’s possible after advances in the reconstruction of Gaza and reforms of the Palestinian Authority.

The U.S. revised the resolution to say that after those steps, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.”

“The United States will establish a dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians to agree on a political horizon for peaceful and prosperous coexistence,” it adds.

Muslim-majority and Arab countries say they may help with implementation

A key to the resolution’s adoption was support from Arab and other Muslim nations that had been critical for the ceasefire and potentially could contribute to the international force.

That includes Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, and Turkey.

Turkish officials have said Turkey is ready to contribute to an international force in Gaza despite Israeli opposition to a Turkish presence.

Indonesia’s defense minister has said previously the country has readied 20,000 troops for humanitarian operations, including medical services for civilians affected by the conflict and infrastructure reconstruction. But the plan is not final yet, Indonesia’s foreign minister said Friday.

The vote shores up hopes that Gaza’s fragile ceasefire will be maintained following a war set off by Hamas’ surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people. Israel’s offensive since then has killed over 69,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants but says the majority are women and children.

European Union to discuss Gaza reconstruction aid

The European Union said on Tuesday it will host a conference on Thursday for a new Palestinian donors group to discuss financial aid for Gaza’s reconstruction, reforms of the Palestinian Authority and long-term peace in the Middle East. The EU has pledged in the past to help train police officers in Gaza and flood the war-torn coastal enclave with humanitarian aid.

European Commission spokesperson Guillaume Mercier said delegations from 60 entities including the EU’s 27 nations and as yet unnamed financial institutions, international organizations and other countries would meet in Brussels. The meeting is to be co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia.

Another Commission spokesperson, Anouar El Anouni said that the U.N. Security Council resolution “provides the basis for moving into the next phase, including work related to the International Stabilization Force and the Board of Peace.”

U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Tuesday that the international community needed to “work together to take forward the 20-point plan and to turn it into a just and lasting peace.” Cooper called for “urgent action to open all the crossings, lift restrictions and flood Gaza with aid.”

What else the US proposal says

Trump said the members of the Board of Peace will be named in the coming weeks, along with “many more exciting announcements.”

The plan calls for the stabilization troops to secure Gaza border areas, along with a Palestinian police force that they have trained and vetted. The force will coordinate with other countries to secure the flow of humanitarian assistance, and should closely consult and cooperate with neighboring Egypt and Israel.

As the international force establishes control, the resolution says Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza “based on standards, milestones, and time frames linked to demilitarization.” These must be agreed to by the stabilization force, Israeli forces, the U.S. and the guarantors of the ceasefire, it says.

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Associated Press writers Edith Lederer at the United Nations, Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, Sam McNeil in Brussels and Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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