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RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Israeli troops raided two Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied West Bank’s north overnight, the military said, as Israel presses offensives on multiple fronts.

The military said that at “around 4:00 a.m. Israeli forces entered Balata camp,” near the northern city of Nablus, for “a routine counter-terrorism operation.”

It added that the troops had been deployed to the nearby Askar camp prior to the operation in Balata camp.

Imad Zaki, head of the popular services committee of Balata camp, also said that the military began its raid at 4:00 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Wednesday.

“They closed all entrances to the camp, seized several homes after evicting their residents, and ordered the homeowners not to return for 72 hours. These homes were turned into military outposts and interrogation centers,” Zaki said.

“The soldiers are conducting house-to-house and neighborhood-to-neighborhood searches, destroying the contents of homes and physically assaulting the residents,” Zaki said.

He added that life had been “largely paralyzed” for the camp’s residents but that no injuries were reported.

In a separate statement, the military said that its forces had “neutralized” one Palestinian overnight in the West Bank village of Al-Walaja near Jerusalem.

They said that as the troops were deployed in the area, a Palestinian armed with a knife “attempted to stab (Israeli) soldiers who were operating in the area and steal their weapons.”

“The soldiers responded with fire and neutralized the terrorist,” the army said, using a term it normally uses when someone has been killed.

The Israeli military said Tuesday that its forces had been active in various parts of the Jenin area, in the northern West Bank.

It said in a statement that its forces had arrested five Palestinian militants suspected of planning attacks on Israel.

Throughout the Gaza war, violence in the West Bank – a separate Palestinian territory – has soared, as have calls to annex it, most notably from Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Since the start of the war in October 2023, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 939 Palestinians, including many militants, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Over the same period, at least 35 Israelis including civilians and soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids, according to official Israeli figures.

NEW DELHI: India and Canada agreed to restore diplomatic services nearly two years after Ottawa accused New Delhi of alleged involvement in the killing of a Sikh separatist leader, which turned into a row straining relations between the two countries.

The announcement was made after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Canadian counterpart, Mark Carney, met Tuesday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven summit in Kananaskis, Alberta.

“The leaders agreed to designate new high commissioners, with a view to returning to regular services to citizens and businesses in both countries,” a statement from Carney’s office said.

High commissioners are senior diplomats, representing their country’s interests and fostering relationships with the host nation.

Modi and Carney reiterated the importance of a bilateral relationship based on mutual respect and a commitment to the principle of territorial sovereignty, according to the statement. They also discussed further collaboration in several sectors, including technology, digital transition, food security, and critical minerals.

Meanwhile, India’s foreign ministry underscored the importance of restarting senior ministerial engagements to “rebuild trust and bring momentum to the relationship.”

Carney’s predecessor, Justin Trudeau, shocked the world in September 2023 after announcing in Parliament there were credible allegations about India’s link to the killing of Hareep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver. New Delhi vehemently denied the allegations and accused Trudeau’s government of harboring extremists.

The Indian government had declared Nijjar a terrorist in 2020 under a law meant to suppress dissent. The Sikh independence advocate was a prominent member of the Khalistan movement, banned in India, to create an independent Sikh homeland. He was seen as a human rights activist by Sikh organizations.

Ties between the two countries continued to worsen and in October, India expelled Canadian diplomats and withdrew its high commissioner and other officials from Canada. Ottawa retaliated by dismissing Indian diplomats and accusing the Indian government of an intensifying campaign against Canadian citizens, a charge New Delhi denied.

India’s anxieties about Sikh separatist groups have long strained its relationship with Canada, where some two percent of the population is Sikh.

Modi calls Trump

As Trump abruptly left the G7 summit, Modi had a detailed phone conversation with the US president and shared India’s military response against Pakistan last month following the killings of 26 innocent people, mostly Hindu men, in Indian-controlled Kashmir, foreign secretary Vikram Misri said.

In recent weeks, Trump had claimed to have brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan and offered trade concessions in part to make the nuclear-armed rivals reach an agreement after shooting at each other for days, which was checkmate by New Delhi. Trump had also proposed mediation over Kashmir.

In a statement, Misri said Modi clarified to Trump that India had never in the past accepted nor would it encourage in the future a third-party mediation over the simmering dispute of Kashmir, a Himalayan region claimed by both India and Pakistan in its entirety.

Misri said Modi made it clear to Trump that during multiple talks held between New Delhi and Washington senior officials amid the ongoing military conflict, there was no mention of a trade deal or the US mediation over Kashmir.

The talks to stop military actions were held directly between the military leaders of India and Pakistan through existing channels, Misri said.