Palestinians used their bare hands to try to defend their property against a bulldozer as Israeli forces tore up their land and used pepper spray in the occupied West Bank. In recent days, Israel has been demolishing Palestinian homes in Nablus.
Published On 2 Sep 20262 Sep 2026
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JESY Nelson has shared a loved up snap with her new boyfriend Ben Davies after they were caught up in a bar row last week.
The former Little Mix star, 35, took to her Instagram stories on Wednesday evening to post the sweet picture.
In the photo, Ben could be seen driving as he had one hand on the steering wheel and the other interlocked into Jesy’s hand.
He was sporting an all-black look with a Givenchy t-shirt and a matching cap.
The pair appeared to be loved-up as she posted the picture during their outing together.
The Sun first linked Jesy to landscape gardener Ben earlier this month.
The two were spotted together at the London venue Jin Bo Law after appearing to grow close, with the singer later sharing a picture of a tattooed arm as she enjoyed drinks on a rooftop.
An eyewitness who saw them together at the time said Jesy “looked like she was having a great time”, adding that it was “massively deserved after everything she’s been through”.
She’s been through an incredibly tough time over the past year and a half after her twin daughters Ocean Jade and Story Monroe were diagnosed with the muscle-wasting condition Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 1.
The rare and severe condition causes muscle weakness and can affect movement, breathing and swallowing.
Jesy has been documenting her daughters’ health battle and has spoken openly about the emotional toll of watching them undergo treatment.
Jesy has previously described the girls’ health journey as one of the hardest experiences of her life.
She recently revealed to her followers that her little girls had undergone a “terrifying” operation.
The X Factor star split from her ex Zion Foster in January this year and they continue to co-parent together.
Last week, Jesy and new beau Ben were caught up in a heated confrontation as she enjoyed some well-earned time off from mum duties.
The pair were asked to leave rooftop bar Madison in St. Paul’s, which caused a face-off with the security present.
Jesy attempted to calm the situation down as she de-escalated the argument.
Video footage obtained exclusively by The Sun showed Jesy and members of the group interacting with a bouncer as they appear to discuss the situation.
The transfer is the first from Lebanon involving a Syrian military officer who fled after al-Assad’s government was toppled in 2024.
Published On 19 Aug 202619 Aug 2026
Lebanon has handed over a former senior Syrian army officer to Damascus to face charges related to murder and torture, the first such transfer since former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in 2024.
The transfer involved Major-General Adel Issa, a former commander of the Syrian army’s 17th Division who later led ground forces in the eastern province of Deir ez-Zur.
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Syria’s Ministry of Interior confirmed his delivery into Syrian custody in a statement on Wednesday.
“Today, Syrian authorities received from the Lebanese authorities the former officer in the defunct regime army, Major-General Adel Issa,” the ministry said.
It added that a Syrian arrest warrant had accused Issa of charges including intentional homicide, facilitating a felony, killing more than two people, torture leading to death, and crimes aimed at inciting civil war and sectarian strife.
A Damascus referral judge will hear his case, which could then be sent to a criminal court for trial, the ministry added.
Issa, 67, has denied the accusations, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two people familiar with his arrest and extradition.
He was detained on August 8 after going to the Syrian embassy in Beirut to complete paperwork.
Embassy officials alerted the prosecutor’s office in Lebanon that he was wanted in Syria, and Lebanese investigators took him into custody, Reuters reported.
His transfer follows months of pressure by Damascus for Lebanon to act against former government officers, as well as security and military officials, who sought refuge in Lebanon after the Assad regime collapsed in December 2024.
President Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former rebel leader, has led the country since.
In January, Syrian authorities gave Lebanese security officials a list of more than 200 former senior officers wanted by Damascus.
Earlier this month, a Damascus court sentenced al-Assad to death in absentia on charges including murder, arbitrary detention and torture. Al-Assad lives in exile in Moscow.
Palestinian politicians and analysts have warned against what they describe as an Israeli plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank by implementing a series of decisions and actions under different pretexts.
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz, on Friday, ordered the military to prepare a plan for transferring civilian law enforcement in the occupied West Bank to the Israeli police.
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the decision follows criticism over the army’s handling of Israeli settlers who besieged a Palestinian home in the village of Qusra.
Katz justified the shift, saying, “The army’s role is to combat Palestinian terrorism … and not chase hilltop youth.”
The Defence Ministry indicated the police would establish a dedicated force to handle these civilian matters.
However, Palestinian officials and a wide array of political experts warn this structural shift represents a dangerous acceleration of illegal annexation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing.
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, told Al Jazeera that the settlers are the “spearhead in the process of annexation and Judaisation”.
He drew direct historical parallels to the mass displacement of Palestinians, stating, “They repeat what the Zionist terror gangs did in 1948, like the Haganah and the Stern Gang.”
Barghouti warned that placing security in the hands of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and illegal Israeli settlements under Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich amounts to “handing over the West Bank to the settlers”.
He stressed that this is an open war on the population, adding, “The actual ruler in the West Bank is the known fascist terrorist Smotrich.”
Analysts argue that replacing military occupation law with domestic civilian law fundamentally alters the legal reality of the territory. Mohanad Mustafa, an academic and researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the decision legally erases the borders.
“The government is dealing with the West Bank not as an occupied territory,” Mustafa said. He explained that by transferring power to a civilian police force, “this means that the government has annexed the West Bank”.
He noted this move absolves the military of its obligations under international law, placing enforcement under Ben-Gvir.
Mustafa warned that Ben-Gvir, who previously oversaw the demolition of thousands of Arab homes in Israel, will now command the police to “support the settlers more and more and push them more and more towards deepening their repression and terrorism against the Palestinians”.
Palestinian leadership strongly condemned the mandate. Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee, described the move as a blatant violation of international agreements and an attempt to “impose Israeli law and sovereignty over the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to entrench the illegal annexation of Palestinian land”.
The Palestinian group Hamas echoed this sentiment, releasing a statement calling the order a “dangerous step on the path to imposing de facto annexation” that provides “cover and more protection for the escalating attacks and crimes of the settlers”.
The Palestinian Authority has accused the Israeli government and its military of sponsoring settlers’ violence. Even Israeli members of parliament have accused the army of being complicit.
Analysts stress that relieving the military of its duties essentially deputises settler violence, turning them into an armed extension of the state.
Nihad Abu Ghosh, an expert in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that there is no contradiction between the army and the settlers. He noted that the settlers have evolved into “fascist militia formations” that perform the state’s dirty work.
“These are fascist militia formations, and there are similar precedents in many countries that were ruled by fascism, whether in Spain, Italy, Germany, or even Chile,” Abu Ghosh said.
He added that these militias carry out roles that “require evading any discipline, rules, or laws” to achieve a “creeping, gradual annexation to make it a reality”.
The dual legal framework resulting from this shift has drawn sharp international and local criticism. Shadi al-Shurafa, a researcher in Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the situation is a textbook definition of segregation.
“We are facing an application of an overt racist apartheid system in the West Bank,” al-Shurafa said, noting it involves one regime operating with two entirely different laws based on ethnicity.
He added that the ultimate goal of the current government is carrying out complete ethnic cleansing and trapping Palestinians in “isolated cantons and isolated Bantustans”.
Other experts argue that the move completely alters the international legal status of the territory, pushing the crisis into a new, more dangerous phase.
“The subject has bypassed the issue of annexation to a post-annexation phase and creating a reality where the Palestinian finds himself forced to think about migration,” said Adel Shadid, expert in Israeli affairs.
Analysts also pointed to the role of the international community, particularly the United States, in enabling this systemic shift.
Shadid dismissed recent US condemnations of settler violence as mere theatre to “mislead global public opinion”.
He argued that the underlying project has full US backing, noting that “all that is happening now is an American-Israeli plan and there is harmony between the two right-wing administrations in Washington and here in Israel”.
Andrew Whitley, a former United Nations official and director of the Balfour Project, stressed that the planned transfer is “completely illegal” and urged immediate global intervention.
He told Al Jazeera that the “Palestinian state is disappearing before our eyes”, demanding that the international community move beyond rhetoric.
“We have to do much more than just wring our hands and complain that governments are not doing anything about this,” Whitley said, calling for concrete sanctions to halt the rapid erasure of the Palestinian presence.
