By Richard Thompson

The Italian authorities freed Iranian engineer Abedini Najafabadi Mohammad on Sunday and he flew home to Iran soon after, ANSA news agency reported.

Abedini was arrested on 16 December by the Italian authorities at Milan Malpensa airport under a US warrant and had been held in prison in the city.

The US Justice Department accused Abedini, along with another Iranian citizen, of supplying Iran with drone technology used in the January 2024 attack on a US outpost in Jordan, which killed three American soldiers.

Many political commentators believe a deal may have been struck whereby Italy promised to free Abedini if Iran release the Italian journalist Cecilia Sala from prison, which Tehran did last week.

However, neither the United States, nor Italy, nor Iran have confirmed whether a deal was in fact struck.

Three days after his arrest Cecilia Sala, a freelance journalist with Il Foglio newspaper and Chora Media, was arrested in Tehran on charges of violating the laws of the Islamic Republic. After 21 days of imprisonment in Evin prison, Sala was freed and returned to Italy on Wednesday 8 January.

By Richard Thompson

Israeli settlers attack Palestinian villages, set vehicles on fire and injure several residents in the West Bank.

Israeli settlers have set vehicles and properties on fire under the protection of Israeli forces while also injuring at least 21 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank.

Jalal Bashir, head of Jinasfut village council, was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency on Monday evening that the attacks took place in the villages of Jinasfut and Funduq, east of Qalqilya.

He added that dozens of Israeli settlers raided Jinasfut and set fire to three homes, a nursery and a workshop. The settlers also set several vehicles owned by Palestinian residents ablaze.

One Palestinian sustained a head injury while trying to protect his home. Several others were undergoing treatment after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli soldiers.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said its medical teams treated those injured by the settlers in Jinsafut and Fanduq, adding that the victims suffered bruises as they were beaten by the settlers.

In the southern West Bank, Israeli settlers also stormed a Palestinian home in the Masafer Yatta area. Dozens of settlers attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones south of Hebron, damaging several of them.

Yesh Din, which monitors human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, shared video clips showing Palestinian-owned vehicles and a building in flames from earlier settler attacks.

According to the group, settlers set two Palestinian homes on fire and torched at least four vehicles in Sinjil village, located northeast of Ramallah. In Ein Siniya village, settlers attacked and set fire to homes, north of Ramallah. It added that settlers attacked and damaged Palestinian-owned property in Turmus Aya, northeast of Ramallah, and also threw stones at vehicles on Route 60, near al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus.

The attacks by Israeli settlers come as US President Donald Trump signed an order on Monday to reverse US sanctions on them in the occupied West Bank. The Biden administration described them as part of the “extremist settlement movement”.

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Palestine also expressed alarm at the “wave of renewed violence” by Israeli settlers and armed forces in the occupied West Bank.

“The UN Human Rights Office is alarmed by a wave of renewed violence perpetrated by settlers and Israeli security forces in the Occupied West Bank, coinciding with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement,” it said in a statement.

The OHCHR also said the violence was accompanied by reinforced restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement, including the closure of checkpoints and installation of new gates, resulting in entire communities being locked in.

Highlighting multiple recent settler attacks on Palestinian villages as well as Monday’s raid in several West Bank towns by Israeli forces, which killed a Palestinian teenager, the OHCHR also said it was concerned about Israel’s plans to expand and increase operations in the Palestinian territory.