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April 3, 2023

Israel Kills 2 Palestinians as Fundamentalist Minister Ben-Gvir Gets Wish to Form New Nat'l Guard
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Israeli police shot and killed a Palestinian man at an entrance to the
Al-Aqsa Mosque in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday. Witnesses
say soldiers fired more than 20 rounds in less than a minute, after the
man tried to prevent police from harassing a woman whom they'd stopped
on her way to the mosque. The victim, 26-year-old Mohammed Khaled
Elasibi, was a Palestinian citizen of Israel who had just finished
medical school. In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian man was fatally
shot by an Israeli soldier hours later near the town of Beit Ummar.
Witnesses say Israeli forces would not let medics access the injured
24-year-old, who bled to death.

The killings came as the Cabinet of Israel's far-right Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu said it had approved a plan to establish a new
national guard under the control of Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's
ultranationalist national security minister, who was once convicted of
racist incitement against Palestinians and supporting a terrorist group.

In Syria, state media is reporting that Israeli airstrikes on Homs
province wounded five Syrian soldiers early Sunday. It was at least the
ninth airstrike by Israel inside Syria since the start of the year.


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