WEST BANK : According to British media reports, the British Foreign Office summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires to convey its strong opposition to the E1 project and called for the measures announced by the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be reversed immediately.

The ministry said settlement construction in the E1 area could separate the northern and southern parts of the West Bank and undermine the possibility of establishing a geographically contiguous Palestinian state.

Meanwhile, three Palestinians were injured and 10 others were arrested during Israeli raids in Nablus and several nearby towns and villages, according to Palestinian sources.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams treated three Palestinians who were beaten during the raids in Nablus and transferred them to hospital for further treatment, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

Elsewhere, settlers moved mobile homes to a settlement outpost established on Mount Tarousa, west of Dura, south of Hebron. Israeli forces also demolished a house and a well in Khirbet Al-Farn, south of Hebron, according to Palestinian sources.

In a separate development, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong expressed deep concern over Israel’s decision to close an investigation into the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom and six colleagues in Gaza in April 2024.

The Israeli military said its investigation found “serious failures” that led soldiers to mistakenly identify a Hamas fighter within a World Central Kitchen convoy, but concluded that the findings did not establish reasonable suspicion of a criminal offence.

Wong said Australia still had unanswered questions about the airstrikes that killed Frankcom and her colleagues, including why subsequent strikes continued after the initial attack was deemed a “catastrophic mistake.”

She said the strikes were inconsistent with the Israeli military’s standard operating procedures and rules of engagement, and questioned why the convoy was targeted in a humanitarian observation zone despite instructions from senior command not to engage it.

Frankcom was among seven people killed when an Israeli airstrike struck a World Central Kitchen convoy in Gaza in April 2024.

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