War

Israeli settlers have been forced to flee as wildfires have started to spread through areas near to settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to a police spokeswoman on Saturday nearly 1,000 settlers were forced to leave the Halamish settlement near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah as 45 settler units were either damaged or destroyed by the fires. The blazes, fueled by drought and high winds, were raging in many locations throughout the Israeli-occupied territories on Friday . The fire in Israels third largest city Haifa has forced some 80,000 people to flee.

The first U.S. combat death in Syria occurred Thursday when a Special Forces member died from wounds sustained by an ISIS improvised explosive device, says CNN, citing the Pentagon. U.S. forces suffer their first casualty in northern Syria on Thursday while engaged in an offensive against ISIS. CNN Politics reports: This marks the first time a US service member has been killed inside Syria since a small number of US Special Forces were sent there last year to advise and assist Syrian forces battling ISIS, also known as ISIL.

Two Syrians living in the occupied Golan Heights have been sentenced to jail by an Israeli military court for blocking an Israeli ambulance that was transporting al-Nusra militants for treatment. Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that on Thursday the court sentenced Amal Abu Saleh to seven years and eight months in jail and issued a fine of more than 3,000 dollars. The other Syrian, Bashira Mahmoud was sentenced to 22 months in prison. She was fined 1,000 dollars.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a statement following comments made by European MEPs declaring a state of “war” against Russia.  MEPs in Strasbourg voted on a non-legislative resolution demanding that the EU “respond to information warfare by Russia“.

Around fifty thousand people are being evacuated as wildfires rage through parts of Israel’s third largest city, Haifa. The fires had been burning in several locations for the past three days but intensified on Thursday, fueled by unseasonably dry weather and strong winds. The wildfires tore across central and northern Israel on Thursday, with Israeli leaders blaming arsonists for some of the blazes and branding them terrorists. The BBC reports: Wildfires are also threatening homes near Jerusalem and in the West Bank.