THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An Amsterdam District Court on Tuesday sentenced five men to up to six months in prison for violence that erupted around a UEFA Europa League football match between the Dutch club Ajax and Israel’s Maccabi Tel Aviv in November.

The riots, which caused an international outcry and accusations of deliberate antisemitic attacks, left 5 people in hospital and 20 others with minor injuries. More than 60 people were detained.

The court on Tuesday sentenced one man to 6 months in prison, another to 2 1/2 months and two to 1 month in jail. A fifth defendant received 100 hours of community service.

A series of violent incidents took place between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soccer fans around the soccer match.

As the war steadily continues, some Gazans are risking their safety to share their frustrations with life under Hamas and their hopes for a different future, a Sunday report by The Sunday Times revealed. To protect their safety, all names in the report have been changed.

Yasir, one of those interviewed, expressed anger at the lack of global understanding of everyday Gazans’ perspectives. “Why do others always speak for us?” he asked a sentiment echoed by others in the Times report. He and his friend Badr are among the founders of Ekhteyar, an anonymous online platform created to provide a space for Gazans to share their thoughts. Launched in August, Ekhteyar (Arabic for “choice”) has already received contributions from over 100 people.

The Times report highlights growing discontent with Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007 following a violent power struggle with Fatah. Many Gazans feel trapped under its control, and polling cited by the report reflects their disillusionment. The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that support for Hamas has fallen to 35% during the current conflict. Separate polling by the Tony Blair Institute suggests that only 7% of Gazans want Hamas to govern the territory after the war.

While criticism of Hamas is mounting, Gazans interviewed for the Times report were keen to emphasize that this does not equate to support for Israel’s actions. Yasir and Badr accused some international activists of distorting the Palestinian narrative to align with their ideological agendas. “For some, Gaza is a stage for their own battles,” Yasir said. Badr noted that these activists often ignore the humanity of Gazans, turning their suffering into a spectacle. “To them, Gaza is a reality TV show where our blood fuels their rhetoric,” he added.

Palestinian media reports that Fatah has banned the Al Jazeera satellite channel from operating in the West Bank, due to its coverage of recent clashes between PA forces and terror operatives in Jenin.

According to the reports, Fatah, which dominates the PA, accuses the Qatari network of labeling the terror operatives from Hamas and Islamic Jihad as resistance fighters and promoting ISIS-style extremism.

Israel, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt have all banned Al Jazeera over separate but similar allegations of bias.

AST JERUSALEM,

On 17 December, UNRWA West Bank office became aware of the presence of Palestinian armed actors in its Health Centre in Jenin Camp, in the northern West Bank. According to reports received, this presence is ongoing. Due to the security situation in the camp, UNRWA has been unable to access the Jenin Camp Health Centre and does not presently have control over the facility and its use.

The Jenin Camp Health Centre is an installation serving Palestine Refugees and is centrally located within the camp. It has been repeatedly restored by UNRWA with generous donor funding following damage and destruction incurred in the context of Israeli Security Forces operations since mid-2023. This forced entry and presence of Palestinian armed actors is a new blatant disregard of UN premises. It has occurred while the Palestinian Security Forces are conducting an operation in and around the camp, ongoing since 14 December.

UNRWA’s service provision in the camp has been severely undermined by the volatile security situation since the beginning of December, with residents unable to consistently access basic services.

UNRWA calls on all sides to respect the inviolability of its facilities, which are protected under international law. The Jenin Camp Health Centre must be vacated immediately to restore its humanitarian character and to continue serving Palestine Refugees.

Over half (57.8%) of Arab citizens in Israel, including Muslims, Druze, and Christians, believe the multi-front war has created a shared sense of destiny between Jews and Arabs, a survey by the Konrad Adenauer Program for Jewish-Arab Cooperation at TAU's Moshe Dayan Center revealed Wednesday.

In June 2024, 51.6% of Arab Israelis believed that the war was creating a shared sense of destiny between Jewish and Arab Israelis, indicating an upward trend. In contrast, in November 2023, nearly three-quarters (69.8%) of Arab Israelis said that the war had harmed solidarity between Arab and Jewish citizens.

In terms of the relationship between Arab Israelis and the state in the December 2024 survey, over a third (39.4%) of respondents said that their sense of belonging to the state has weakened since October 7. Only 17.4% said their sense of belonging to Israel has strengthened due to the war.

The survey additionally revealed that a third (33.9%) of Arab Israelis define their Israeli citizenship as the most important element in their personal identity, compared to the 9% who regard their Palestinian identity as the dominant component of their identity. Of those surveyed, 29.2% view their religious affiliation as the most important aspect of their identity, and 26.9% view their Arab identity as the most important.

In comparison to earlier surveys, it is notable that the importance of Israeli citizenship to Arab Israelis has increased during the war.

Michael Levy, the brother of Hamas hostage Or Levy, addresses the UN Security Council as it meets for a session on the Middle East.

Levy says in a video message that his family has suffered “439 days of fear, anguish, and an unbearable silence that echoes louder than any words ever could.”

--snip--

“Hamas’s actions are not just blatant violation of international law. They are an assault on humanity itself. Holding civilians hostage, men, women, children, is a violation of the principles that this very council was created to protect,” Levy states.

“And yet your silence is deafening. Your inaction is suffocating. For every day this council fails to act, the message to the world is clear. That some lives are worth saving and others are not. “

A hostage deal could be signed by the end of this week and could include the deportation of senior Palestinian security prisoners to Qatar and Turkey, various Arab media sites reported on Wednesday.

A report by Saudi news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat cited a Hamas official as stating that a deal was "imminent," with the main points having already been agreed upon.

According to Asharq Al-Awsat, in the first stage of the agreement, which is supposed to last some 45-60 days, Hamas would release some 30 hostages, both alive and deceased, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners.

Saudi outlet Al-Hadath quoted sources saying that Hamas agreed to release sick, elderly, and female soldiers held hostage by the terror organization. In addition, IDF troops would withdraw from cities within the Gaza Strip.

Switzerland’s parliament approved a proposal to ban Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, describing it as a paramilitary terrorist organization.

For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The decision comes a week after it signed off on a law that banned Palestinian group Hamas from any activity in Switzerland.

Both Hezbollah and Hamas are designated terrorist organizations by the US and many other countries. Switzerland, traditionally neutral, had previously not aligned with that stance, but that shifted after Hamas launched a large-scale attack on Israel in October of last year.

Still, after the Hamas ban, the Swiss government said this was “not a paradigm shift in the generally cautious practice of banning organizations.” It didn’t ban Hezbollah at the same time and said it would decide “only on a case-by-case basis for extremely serious reasons.”

Senior US officials say Turkey and its militia allies are building up forces along the border with Syria, raising alarms that Ankara is preparing for a large-scale incursion into territory held by American-backed Syrian Kurds, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The forces include militia fighters and Turkish uniformed commandos and artillery in large numbers that are concentrated near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria on the northern border with Turkey, the officials said. A Turkish cross-border operation could be imminent, one of the US officials said.

The buildup, which began after Bashar al-Assad’s regime fell in early December, appears similar to Turkish military moves ahead of its 2019 invasion of northeast Syria. “We are focused on it and pressing for restraint,” another of the US officials said.

Ilham Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds’ civilian administration, told President-elect Donald Trump on Monday that a Turkish military operation appeared likely, urging him to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan not to send troops across the border. Turkey’s goal is to “establish de facto control over our land before you take office, forcing you to engage with them as rulers of our territory,” Ahmed wrote to Trump in a letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal. “If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic.”