The prime minister of Australia’s country has refuted claims that it carried out attacks on at least two Jewish sites in Iran last year. In response to the attacks, Anthony Albanese announced plans to have Iran’s ambassador fired.
At least 24 Palestinians have been hurt in the attacks, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in the occupied West Bank following the Israeli army’s raid on Ramallah and El-Bireh.
According to the Wafa news agency, a 12-year-old child was among the injured when he was shot in the back close to a vegetable market, citing medical teams.
Witnesses on the ground claimed that Israeli forces stormed a currency exchange store in a Ramallah-Bireh border settlement, detaining at least three Palestinians, while Israeli troops stormed the area’s central vegetable market area with snipers positioned themselves on rooftops.
A 71-year-old man and four others received rubber-coated steel bullet wounds to the neck, head, face, and abdomen.
WHILE ANOTHER REASON: Israeli occupation soldiers continue to raid downtown Ramallah, causing fear in civilians. pic. twitter.com/HvKiGdOHyF
Two pregnant women and five other people were hurt in the raid by breathing tear gas.
According to them, a rescue team was unable to reach the wounded in the besieged areas.
The raid, which included three schools and a market, was conducted by former Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) communication director Xavier Abu Eid, for which time it lasted a few hours.
Abu Eid, a resident of Ramallah, stated to Al Jazeera, “This is a part of Palestinians’ daily life,” noting that Israel is demonstrating force against locals by reminding them “who is actually ruling here.”
Israel’s most recent military operation in Ramallah, according to Adel Abdel Ghafar, senior fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, demonstrated that the country’s conflict is rooted in “all the Palestinian people.”
“The Israeli military has been conducting more frequent incursions into the West Bank. Homes have been destroyed in the past. He claimed that properties have been destroyed.
He continued, “This is a part of the Palestinian people’s collective punishment in the West Bank,” noting that one of the objectives is to “financially strangle” residents there.
Because the Palestinian Authority (PA) is unable to effectively respond, he added, Israel was able to carry out its operations “with impunity across the West Bank.”
In the centrally occupied West Bank, Israeli army snipers storm the roof of the Arab Care Hospital. pic. twitter.com/why01lw80M
Since Israel’s occupation of Gaza in October 2023, there has been more Israeli military and settler violence in the West Bank, and thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes.
In Nablus in the northern West Bank, 479 attacks were reported in Ramallah, with 585 of them coming in second.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 671 Palestinians, including 129 children, have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the area since October 2023.
Faten Elwan, a political journalist based in Paris, claimed that the raid in Ramallah appeared to be more of a military display than a targeted military operation.
Palestinian journalist Mariam Abu Daqqa had emailed her young son Gaith a letter of condolence before she was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza’s Nasser Hospital. Mariam’s words were narrated by a fellow Palestinian journalist.
EXPLAINER
Rio Ngumoha became the youngest goal scorer for the renowned England side Liverpool on Monday, becoming the youngest ever.
The winger made a substitute start for the defending Premier League champions in St James’ Park, where he scored the winning goal to earn a 3-2 victory over Newcastle United.
Ngumoha is the only other 16-year-old to have scored a Premier League goal.
What is known about the promising teen football player?
Ngumoha made his Premier League debut for Liverpool on Monday night, scoring the match-winning goal in the 100th minute against Newcastle at St James’ Park, just days shy of his 17th birthday.
Ngumoha’s stylish strike, which came in the final moments of a competitive game, was made even more unique because debutant teenagers, who lack experience, rarely play at the end of significant games.
Ngumoha, a talented youngster who had spent nearly half his life with the London-based club when he moved to Liverpool in the off-season at the age of eight, was a talented eight.
Ngumoha left Chelsea after Liverpool scouts provided a clearer path to Premier League exposure and first-team play, according to reports.
Ngumoha was born on August 29, 2008, in London, the child of Nigerian parents.
Lionel Messi and Neymar are both cited as his football heroes.
The youngest goal scorer in Premier League history, James Vaughan, James Milner, and Wayne Rooney, is sat next to three other players, Ngumoha.
When Vaughan scored his first goal against Crystal Palace on April 10, 2005, he was the youngest ever goal scorer in history at 16 years, 8 months, and 27 days old.
UNBELIEVABLE!!!! 🤯 pic. twitter.com/P60Iq2kQdY
In the occupied West Bank, at least 13 Palestinians have been injured in clashes with Israeli forces in Ramallah. As the army raided foreign currency exchanges, soldiers videoed soldiers firing directly at civilians and journalists.
Australia’s accusations were “absolutely rejected,” according to Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei on Tuesday, saying that “any inappropriate and unjustified action on a diplomatic level will have a reciprocal reaction.”
Baghaei added that the measures appeared to be “influenced by internal developments” in Australia, including weekend protests against Israel’s occupation of Gaza, which organisers claimed were the biggest pro-Palestine demonstrations in Australia’s history.
He continued, “It appears that this action is taken to make up for the limited criticism the Australian side has directed toward Israel.”
Australia’s prime minister Anthony Albanese earlier on Tuesday claimed Iran was responsible for the devastating destruction of a kosher cafe in Sydney in October and that it was responsible for the major arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne in December.
In neither of the attacks, where assailants set fire to the homes and extensive damage, there were no fatalities.
Tohid Asadi, a journalist from Tehran, reported for Al Jazeera that Iran views Australia’s actions as a continuation of its hostility toward Australia.
Iran has been subject to a number of sanctions from Australia, such as those imposed on Iran in 2024, he said, adding that Tehran sees these most recent actions as “another sign that Australia is siding with the Israelis.”
Ahmad Sadeghi, the Iranian ambassador, was declared a “persona non grata” by Australia, who also required him and three other officials to leave the nation in less than seven days. The move, according to Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, was the first time since World War II that Australia has expelled an ambassador.
Australia also suspended operations at its Tehran embassy, which opened in 1968, and withdrew its ambassador there.
Wong added that in order to advance Canberra’s interests, the government will continue to maintain diplomatic ties with Iran.
According to Foad Izadi, a professor of world studies at the University of Tehran, Sadeghi “vocal in his support for the Palestinian cause.”
“Australia’s decision to expel him is primarily due to that,” he said. The largest pro-Palestine demonstrations took place just a few days ago in numerous Australian cities.
The Australian government’s recent expelling of a country’s ambassador is an indication that they are afraid of their own population and afraid of the demands that this population [makes] in relation to the issue of genocide in Palestine.
The government will pass legislation to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, as a terrorist organization, according to PM Albanese.
Since Israel’s occupation of Gaza began in October 2023, the Australian Security Intelligence Organization is looking into IRGC involvement in other anti-Jewish attacks.
Izadi refuted those assertions, saying that it “hasn’t provided any evidence.” He believes that the Australian government made these decisions because it is concerned about the Australian people’s serious objections to Israel and calls for greater political activism against the genocide in Palestine.
Australia’s actions against Iran coincide with Israel’s ties with the country’s decision to support France, the UK, and Canada’s recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly in September.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Albanese as a “weak politician who betrayed Israel and abandoned Australia’s Jews” last week.