Ireland appears closer to passing a bill that will ban trade with illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territories in the West Bank, sparking sharp criticism from US officials who have signaled the move could harm Dublin’s relationship with Washington.

CNN crew allegedly targeted while on assignment investigating the death of 20-year-old Florida native Saif al-Din Kamil Abdul Karim Musalat.

Top church leaders in the Holy Land have condemned intensifying Israeli settler violence on the only entirely Christian Palestinian village remaining in the occupied West Bank.

"Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

Christian leaders accused Israeli settlers on Monday of attacking sacred sites in the West Bank, in violence that one said was forcing some to consider quitting the occupied territory. The Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem,

The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) minister for foreign affairs, Varsen Aghabekian Shahin, described as “shocking and disappointing” the European Union’s refusal to act against Israel for violations in Gaza and the West Bank.

The UN warned yesterday that mass displacement in the West Bank had hit levels not seen since the start of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territory nearly 60 years ago.

The post Jordan’s Abdullah labels Israel’s actions in Gaza ‘genocide,’ condemns settler attacks on West Bank Palestinians appeared first on The Times of Israel.