Middle Eastern Politics Headlines at 7:18 a.m. GMT
Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them
Israeli settlers in the West Bank were hit with international sanctions. It only emboldened them
Israel has assassinated two dozen Hezbollah commanders in Lebanon since last fall amid an intelligence war employing cellphones, drones and fake rocks.
Senior figures in Israel's government have said it is closing in on its war aims of defeating Hamas militarily and the return of hostages seized on Oct. 7. After nine months of pummelling by one of the most powerful militaries in the Middle East, Hamas is much weakened from the force that carried out the cross-border attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Early in the war, Hamas propaganda videos showed well-drilled fighters in body armour and battle fatigues, their torsos wrapped with ammunition belts.
Kamala Harris signaled a major shift on US Gaza policy Thursday, with the presidential hopeful telling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seal a peace deal and insisting she would not be "silent" on the suffering in the Palestinian enclave."As I just told Prime Minister Netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done," she said.
Many said she did not appear to express the same level of sympathy towards those who had died.
Police say a gang attacked three remote villages in Papua New Guinea, killing at least two dozen.
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia, New Zealand and Canada on Friday called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and asked Israel to respond to a United Nations court which last week ruled its occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there were illegal. "Israel must listen to the concerns of the international community," the leader's statement said. Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas.
Indian soldiers and top brass gathered Friday in the remote Himalayan foothills to commemorate a battle fondly remembered among compatriots for imposing a humiliating military defeat on arch-rival Pakistan.The high-altitude confrontation began when Pakistan-backed militants crossed into Indian territory at Kargil, a remote and high-altitude outpost on the countries' shared frontier.
French intelligence sources hinted that the massive sabotage attack on rail lines leading to Paris on Friday may have been the work of Left-wing radicals.
Video posted on social media shows insects crawling inside Watergate Hotel in Washington DC
The remains of a teacher and four soldiers were found in an operation in Khan Younis on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel is seeking changes to a plan for a Gaza truce and the release of hostages by Hamas, complicating a final deal to halt nine months of combat that have devastated the enclave, according to a Western official, a Palestinian and two Egyptian sources. Israel says that displaced Palestinians should be screened as they return to the enclave's north when the ceasefire begins, retreating from an agreement to allow civilians who fled south to freely return home, the four sources told Reuters. Israeli negotiators "want a vetting mechanism for civilian populations returning to the north of Gaza, where they fear these populations could support” Hamas fighters who remain entrenched there, said the Western official.
A group of 45 American doctors and nurses describe bloodshed in Gaza in an open letter to the White House, and demand immediate ceasefire.
Palestinian Olympic athletes were greeted with a roar of a crowd and gifts of food and roses as they arrived in Paris on Thursday, ready to represent war–torn Gaza and the rest of the territories on a global stage. As the beaming athletes walked through a sea of Palestinian flags at the main Paris airport, they said they hoped their presence would serve as a symbol amid the Israel-Hamas war that has claimed more than 39,000 Palestinian lives. Athletes, French supporters and politicians in the crowd urged the European nation to recognize a Palestinian state, while others expressed outrage at Israel's presence at the Games after U.N.-backed human rights experts said Israeli authorities were responsible for “war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wept on Thursday as she surveyed the destruction wrought by days of deadly unrest, as student leaders weighed the future of the protests that sparked the disorder. "We demand an apology from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the nation for the mass murder of students," Asif Mahmud, one of the group's coordinators, told AFP. "We also want the sacking of the home minister and education minister."
Bangladeshi police detectives on Friday forced the discharge from hospital of three student protest leaders blamed for deadly unrest, taking them to an unknown location, staff told AFP. Nahid Islam, Asif Mahmud and Abu Baker Majumder are all members of Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organising this month's street rallies against civil service hiring rules.Islam, 26, the chief coordinator of Students Against Discrimination, told AFP from his hospital bed on Monday that
Italy plans to send an ambassador back to Syria after a decade-long absence, the country’s foreign minister said, in a diplomatic move that could spark divisions among European Union allies. Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, speaking in front of relevant parliamentary committees Thursday, announced Rome’s intention to re-establish diplomatic ties with Syria to prevent Russia from monopolizing diplomatic efforts in the Middle Eastern country. Moscow is considered a key supporter of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has remained in power despite widespread Western isolation and civilian casualties since the start of Syria’s civil war in March 2011.
Kamala Harris said she will "not be silent" over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza following a meeting with Israel's prime minister. The probable Democratic Party nominee as presidential candidate said she raised "serious concerns" with Benjamin Netanyahu in discussions at the White House on Thursday.
STORY: :: Netanyahu played to a Republican audience on his U.S. visit, this analyst says:: Khaled Elgindy:: Arlington, Virginia:: July 24, 2024“I think it was very much on brand and in character for Netanyahu, who after all, presides over the most right-wing government in Israel's history. So, he was speaking in very stridently, kind of stark black and white terms, there is good and there is evil. We are the forces of good. We and the United States and we are battling the forces of evil.""He did not mention the ceasefire, very notably, which, after all, the president and others in the U.S. administration have said repeatedly that this is an Israeli ceasefire proposal. And for the Israeli prime minister to make no mention of what should be his own government ceasefire proposal that has now been adopted by the U.N. Security Council is, was odd.”Also notably absent was Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, who would normally preside over the speech in her role as vice president.While dozens of Democrats boycotted his remarks and thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrated nearby, Netanyahu dismissed criticism of an Israeli campaign that has devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed more than 39,000 of its residents, according to Gaza health officials.In his address Netanyahu sketched a vague outline of a plan for a "deradicalized" post-war Gaza and touted a potential future alliance between Israel and America's Arab allies.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s office said Friday that the U.K. will not intervene in the International Criminal Court’s request for an arrest warrant against Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The announcement is reversal of plans announced by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who was ousted earlier this month when Starmer's Labour Party swept Conservatives from office in a landslide. “This was a proposal by the previous government which was not submitted before the election, and which I can confirm the government will not be pursuing in line with our long-standing position that this is a matter for the court to decide,” a Starmer spokesperson said.
Where authorities in Bangladesh see revolt, protesters see revolution.