Grandmother, 80, ‘fell to her knees’ after IDF shot her six times during raid, says son
As we stare at a bullet-ridden wall, two young Palestinian boys stand behind us on a stoop and look on in fearful awe.
“It’s the military,” one boy in a beige hoodie tells his friend. His friend stares at the wall with wide eyes and gives a little nod.
Balata camp in Nablus, the commercial centre of the West Bank, has just come out of a two-day Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid when we go to visit.
Mounds of dug-up dirt line the tarmac of the main road through the market. Shop owners sullenly stare at the reminders of the violent exchange of gunfire that shook their neighbourhood hours earlier. On the wall are decorated portraits of killed armed militants from various factions in the area.
A pile of shattered glass marks where 80-year-old Halima Abu Leil was shot dead. Her son says she “fell to her knees” after Israeli forces fired at her six times when she went to buy groceries on Thursday morning.
The IDF says it is aware of the reports that “during the exchanges of fire with the terrorists, uninvolved civilians present in the area were harmed”.
“My mum was elderly and had cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. They could see she was an old woman – why would they fire at her?” asks Halima’s son.
He’s happy to be filmed but won’t share his first name – not a sign of irrational paranoia but a need for safety in a climate of increasing IDF raids and surveillance. A name translates into an ID number that can be tracked down.
Halima’s son is happy to be filmed but won’t share his first name
He takes his six-year-old son to the local mosque for Friday prayer. We film men of all ages pouring into the foyer but are not permitted to film the sermon that follows. The building tension is felt in every corner of the camp – even in the rooms reserved for God.
“No one is with the Palestinians but God,” he told us at his mother’s funeral 20 minutes earlier.
“Every single Palestinian is targeted, no one is exempt. Not children, not the elderly, no one.”
One of Halima’s daughters mourning the loss
Sibling not new to sudden loss
He sits next to his sister who is not new to sudden loss. She says her two sons are gone – one was killed last year and the other is in prison.
“What law is this? Children and pregnant women are killed. Our sons leave the house and don’t come back,” says Halima’s daughter.
“They can see she’s an elderly lady but they shot her six times – in her legs, in her chest. When she was first shot in her legs, she knelt on the ground,” she adds.
IDF statement
We approached the IDF about Halima’s death. This was their response:
“Early on Thursday, the IDF conducted a counterterrorism activity to apprehend an individual suspected of terror activity in the area of Balata in Nablus. During the activity, the IDF soldiers engaged in exchanges of fire with terrorists who opened fire and hurled explosives toward IDF soldiers. Hits were identified. In addition, IDF soldiers encircled a structure in which terrorists barricaded themselves. No IDF injuries were reported.”
The IDF say this footage shows armed terrorists in the vicinity of Israeli soldiers. Pic: IDF
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In Balata camp there are no dominant armed factions but a medley of affiliated fighters.
“When they see oppression like this – they want to fight,” says Halima’s daughter. Her sons were loyal to the armed resistance growing in their neighbourhood.
Nablus in the West Bank
As men pour out of the mosque into the street where Halima was killed, I ask an older man where the fighters are today.
“We don’t see them anymore,” he says in a hushed tone. “They are in hiding because of the increased raids.”
“These are just young men with guns – meagre protection in the face of Israeli military hardware. What’s an M16 to a tank?”
As diplomats scramble to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, peace feels more elusive than ever in the West Bank.
World
Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem
South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.
His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.
The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.
The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.
Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP
Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.
The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP
After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.
He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.
His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.
The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.
South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.
Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.
Stock markets around the world fell on Thursday after Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs – with some economists now fearing a recession.
The US president announced tariffs for almost every country – including 10% rates on imports from the UK – on Wednesday evening, sending financial markets reeling.
While the UK’s FTSE 100 closed down 1.55% and the continent’s STOXX Europe 600 index was down 2.67% as of 5.30pm, it was American traders who were hit the most.
Trump tariffs latest: US stock markets tumble
All three of the US’s major markets opened to sharp losses on Thursday morning.
The S&P 500 is set for its worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. File pic: AP
By 8.30pm UK time (3.30pm EST), The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 3.7%, the S&P 500 opened with a drop of 4.4%, and the Nasdaq composite was down 5.6%.
Compared to their values when Donald Trump was inaugurated, the three markets were down around 5.6%, 8.7% and 14.4%, respectively, according to LSEG.
Worst one-day losses since COVID
As Wall Street trading ended at 9pm in the UK, two indexes had suffered their worst one-day losses since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The S&P 500 fell 4.85%, the Nasdaq dropped 6%, and the Dow Jones fell 4%.
It marks Nasdaq’s biggest daily percentage drop since March 2020 at the start of COVID, and the largest drop for the Dow Jones since June 2020.
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The latest numbers on tariffs
‘Trust in President Trump’
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told CNN earlier in the day that Mr Trump was “doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term”.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump,” she told the broadcaster, adding: “This is indeed a national emergency… and it’s about time we have a president who actually does something about it.”
Later, the US president told reporters as he left the White House that “I think it’s going very well,” adding: “The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom.”
He later said on Air Force One that the UK is “happy” with its tariff – the lowest possible levy of 10% – and added he would be open to negotiations if other countries “offer something phenomenal”.
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How is the world reacting to Trump’s tariffs?
Economist warns of ‘spiral of doom’
The turbulence in the markets from Mr Trump’s tariffs “just left everybody in shock”, Garrett Melson, portfolio strategist at Natixis Investment Managers Solutions in Boston, told Reuters.
He added that the economy could go into recession as a result, saying that “a lot of the pain, will probably most acutely be felt in the US and that certainly would weigh on broader global growth as well”.
Meanwhile, chief investment officer at St James’s Place Justin Onuekwusi said that international retaliation is likely, even as “it’s clear countries will think about how to retaliate in a politically astute way”.
He warned: “Significant retaliation could lead to a tariff ‘spiral of doom’ that could be the growth shock that drags us into recession.”
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It comes as the UK government published a long list of US products that could be subject to reciprocal tariffs – including golf clubs and golf balls.
Running to more than 400 pages, the list is part of a four-week-long consultation with British businesses and suggests whiskey, jeans, livestock, and chemical components.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on Thursday that the US president had launched a “new era” for global trade and that the UK will respond with “cool and calm heads”.
It also comes as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced a 25% tariff on all American-imported vehicles that are not compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal.
He added: “The 80-year period when the United States embraced the mantle of global economic leadership, when it forged alliances rooted in trust and mutual respect and championed the free and open exchange of goods and services, is over. This is a tragedy.”
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