Saturday, March 12, 2022

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers used pepper spray to assault 3 Palestinian women picking gundelia flowers near Kisan. Israeli settlers also threw stones at Palestinian vehicles near the Homesh settlement outpost. Later, when Israeli forces tried to intervene, the Israeli settlers threw stones at the Israeli forces. (WAFA 3/12; HA 3/16; PCHR 3/17; UNOCHA 3/25)

The Israeli Jerusalem municipality’s planning and building committee approved a plan to build 730 new Israeli settlement units in the Pisgat Ze’ev settlement in East Jerusalem. The PA and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the plan approval. (WAFA, WAFA 3/12; WAFA 3/13)

In response to an Israeli attack in Syria that killed 2 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on 3/7, Iran fired 12 missiles at Irbil in Iraq targeting Israeli “strategic centers,” according to Iranian state media. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard released a statement saying it would continue to respond to Israeli attacks on Iranians in the future. Lebanese media reported that 4 Israeli officers were killed in the attack, while Iraqi and American sources said that there were no casualties. U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan condemned the Iranian attack and said that the U.S. is working with Iraq to help it gain missile defense capabilities. The New York Times later reported that the Iranian attack was also a response to a secret Israeli attack on an Iranian drone facility in Kermanshah on 2/12, which allegedly was carried out from Iraq with the use of 6 suicide quadcopter drones. (AJ, HA, HA, HA, MEMO, MEMO, REU, REU, REU 3/13; AJ, AP, AP, MEE, MEMO, MEMO 3/14; ALM, HA, MEMO 3/15; HA, HA, NYT 3/16; HA, MEMO 3/17)

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv that he would like to have a top-level meeting with Russia in Jerusalem to end the war, pointing out that early Israeli leaders were from Ukraine. Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett has presented himself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, but he has been criticized by some Ukrainian officials for trying to persuade Ukraine into give up territory to Russia to end the war. Others have criticized Prime Minister Bennett for avoiding to take a hard stance against Russia and supporting Ukraine by trying to mediate. (ALM, AX, HA 3/11; HA, HA, MEMO, REU, REU 3/12; HA 3/13; ALM 3/15; HA 3/17)