Israel | Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday urged all sides in the ongoing Middle East conflict to “exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance” after a new round of hostilities between Iran and Israel. “The recent surge in violence in the Middle East is a stark reminder of the dangers associated with a tenuous ceasefire and the unbearable consequences it may lead to,” PM Shehbaz said in a post on X. “We sincerely urge all sides to exercise restraint and give peace a little more chance,” the premier wrote, emphasising that the “final objective is just about to be achieved”. He noted that Pakistan was working “earnestly and painstakingly, together with our brothers and partners, to find a peaceful diplomatic solution to the conflict”. “Let us continue to remain on the path of peace and diplomacy which have bright prospects of success instead of violence and destruction!” PM Shehbaz urged. PM Shehbaz’s statement comes after Israel and Iran exchanged attacks on Monday for the first time since the shaky ce...

Iran on Monday said it was ending its latest military operation against Israel after the first exchanges of fire between the foes since a shaky ceasefire began, but warned it could inflict a more “crushing” response. United States President Donald Trump earlier on Monday told both Iran and key ally Israel to stop fighting, against the background of reports of an increasingly testy relationship between the US leader and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Iran fired dozens of missiles at Israel overnight and Israel responded by targeting military sites in the Islamic republic, sparking fears the escalation could usher in a new full-scale conflict after the April 8 truce. “Israel and Iran must immediately stop ‘shooting.’ President DONALD J. TRUMP,” the US leader wrote on his Truth Social network. Minutes later, he added in a new post that “final negotiations” towards peace were proceeding “subject to ignorance or stupidity getting in its way.” Iran’s military command then said it was halting the operati...

Israel and Iran traded fire on Monday, seriously testing a fragile truce and threatening hopes for a deal to end the Middle East war. The new attacks, including a strike on an Iranian petrochemical complex, came hours after US President Donald Trump called on Israel to refrain from retaliating against Tehran’s missiles. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said Tehran retaliated for the strike on its petrochemical complex by attacking similar industrial targets in Israel’s Haifa. AFP journalists in Jerusalem heard a series of explosions as they took shelter and the Israeli army said it worked to intercept a new wave of Iranian missiles. The retaliation followed Israel saying it fired on western and central Iran, tit-for-tat action against Tehran’s strikes on Sunday of 11 missiles, all of which were intercepted, with no casualties. Israel’s military and Iranian local media said Monday that Israel struck a petrochemical company in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran. Trump had sought to rein in Israeli Pri...

At least one person was killed and five others wounded in multiple shooting attacks in Israel on Sunday, authorities said, with one of the perpetrators killed. Israel’s emergency service Magen David Adom said a man about 35 years old had died of gunshot wounds. The service also “provided medical treatment and evacuated to hospitals five injured people, including two in serious condition and three in moderate condition, with penetrating injuries to their bodies”, it added. Police said they had located a vehicle suspected of involvement and killed a suspect believed to be responsible near the town of Kokhav Yair, a few kilometres away from the occupied West Bank. Rescuers said attacks also took place in the nearby towns of Tzur Natan and Tzur Yitzhak. Israel’s military told AFP that one perpetrator had been killed and searches were ongoing for a second. The office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had “held a situational assessment and is monitoring the deadly shooting attack”. Far-right National Sec...

Israel and Lebanon agreed on Wednesday to implement a ceasefire but said it would require a “complete cessation” of fire by Hezbollah, according to a joint statement after US-led talks in Washington. The two sides, which do not have formal diplomatic relations, also agreed to create “pilot zones” in which the Lebanese armed forces “will take exclusive control of the territory to the exclusion of all non-state actors”. The development came despite continued cross-border attacks earlier in the day, with Hezbollah saying it targeted Israeli troops and Israeli strikes killing at least ten people in southern Lebanon. Just hours after the agreement was announced, air raid alarms sounded in northern Israel with a “suspicious aerial target” identified without causing any casualties. The joint statement said the ceasefire was “contingent on a complete cessation” of fire by Hezbollah as well as evacuation of the group’s operatives from southern Lebanon. The meetings in Washington were the fourth round of direct talks b...

Israel’s hardline finance minister announced on Wednesday a major expansion by more than 2,000 homes of three Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank that Palestinians hope will be part of a future independent state. Most nations consider Israeli settlements there to be illegal under international law and a major obstacle to a two-state solution for long-term peace. Bezalel Smotrich, who holds authority over parts of Israel’s civilian administration in the West Bank, said a planning committee approved the construction of 2,162 new Jewish homes. They include 1,006 units in a new settlement near Jerusalem, 922 near the Palestinian city of Nablus and 234 near Hebron. “We are continuing to build the Land of Israel in practice,” said Smotrich, an ultra-nationalist sanctioned by Britain, France and others who accuse him of inciting violence against Palestinians. Smotrich has denounced the sanctions against him, saying the measures would not change Israeli policy. The new homes would “strengthen our hold on the...

Israel’s attorney general warned on Monday of the country’s democratic backsliding under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, specifically regarding the judiciary’s independence and the executive’s disregard for court rulings. Gali Baharav-Miara, who also serves as the government’s legal adviser, has clashed with Netanyahu’s government since it took office in late 2022. “Given the approach of the end of the current Knesset’s term, a race has begun to eliminate democratic institutions,” Baharav-Miara said at a conference of the Israeli Bar Association on Monday. She pointed specifically to two bills currently travelling through Israel’s parliament. The first aims to split the attorney general’s powers by creating a “prosecutor general” position appointed by the justice minister. The second bill aims to grant far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir more powers over the police. Speaking at the conference in the southern Israeli city of Eilat, Baharav-Miara also denounced what she said was...

WASHINGTON: A provision tucked into the US House of Representatives’ version of the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for fiscal year 2027 could significantly deepen military cooperation between the United States and Israel, potentially creating Washington’s closest defence partnership with any foreign country. The NDAA is the annual legislation through which Congress authorises defence spending and sets policy priorities for the Pentagon. Before becoming law, the bill must be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, and then signed by the president. At the centre of the current debate is Section 224, titled the “United States–Israel Defence Technology Cooperation Initiative,” which requires the US Secretary of Defence to “designate an executive agent responsible for synchronising cooperative efforts between the United States and Israel, including bilateral defence technology research, development, testing, evaluation, integration, and industrial cooperation.” It outlines expanded...

Israel captured the medieval fortress on Beaufort in Lebanon on Sunday as it warned Lebanese civilians to flee a large area of the south of the country ahead of a stepped-up ground offensive. The Associated Press noted that Israel’s capture of the 900-year-old Beaufort Castle and its strategic ridge in southern Lebanon was Israel’s deepest incursion into the country in 26 years. Shelling was audible and smoke rose from the surrounding area as the invading army’s banner was seen by AFP above the castle, which Israeli forces famously used as a base during their previous two-decade-long occupation. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said troops had captured the historic strongpoint, which commands sweeping views of south Lebanon, as they expanded their ground operations, which Lebanon’s prime minister has condemned as a “scorched earth” policy. “Forty-four years after the heroic Battle of Beaufort, and on this day commemorating the soldiers who fell in the First Lebanon War, our troops have returned to the sum...

• Foreign Minister Fidan says platform may include Pakistan, Turkiye, S. Arabia, Egypt, Gulf states and potentially Iran • Gaza death toll nears 73,000 with seven more killings in a day TURKIYE’S Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, has said that Israel can join a cooperative “regional platform” if it recognises a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, according to an Al Jazeera report. “If that problem is solved, I think the security of Israel will be very much assisted by the regional countries, too,” he told Nikkei Asia. Fidan said this framework could include Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, other Gulf countries, and “when things come [back to] normal, maybe Iran should also be part of it”. “All the countries in the region should be committing to each other’s territorial integrity, sovereignty and security,” Fidan told Nikkei. These comments come as Turkiye is expected to host a pivotal Nato summit in July in Ankara. On Monday, Trump laid out his vision for expanding the Abraham Accords, a series of no...

WASHINGTON: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Friday that Pakistan remained firmly committed to its longstanding position on Palestine and Gaza and that there could be no change in Islamabad’s stance towards Israel without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. He said this during a press conference at Pakistan’s embassy in Washington after a meeting with Rubio. Dar was asked whether US President Donald Trump had dropped his calls for Muslim countries to join the Abraham Accords as part of a potential deal with Iran. The question arose because Trump did not mention the issue in a statement issued earlier on Friday outlining potential key areas in the deal. DPM Dar did not respond directly to the question. Instead, he said he had reiterated Pakistan’s position during his engagements at the United Nations earlier this week. “Pakistan remains steadfast in its position on Palestine and Gaza,” Dar said, adding that Israel “must move towards the establishment of a Palestin...

The United Nations warned on Friday that an Israeli plan to take control of 70 per cent of Gaza will increase suffering among children already hit by the impacts of severe overcrowding. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the military to take control of more territory in the Gaza Strip, flouting the terms of a fragile ceasefire that took effect in October. He said the military had controlled 50pc of the Palestinian territory under the terms of the ceasefire, then advanced to take over 60pc. “My directive is to move to… 70pc,” he said. The United Nations children’s agency Unicef warned that this would deepen the health crisis among children in the territory, suffering from acute lack of food, water and hygiene. Israel controls the flow of aid into the territory along with all entry points into Gaza, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2007. Even before Israel’s assault in Gaza that began in 2023, the territory was already very densely populated. Now “people have been crammed into a...

Israeli and Russian security forces have been added to a United Nations blacklist on sexual violence in conflict, according to a report reviewed on Thursday by AFP. Published annually by the UN, the list includes dozens of state and non-state groups credibly suspected of having engaged “systematically” in sexual violence in countries such as Sudan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Syria and Mali. Last August, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Israel and Russia of their possible inclusion on the list. Despite the warning, the report says that “incidents and patterns of sexual violence continued to be documented by the United Nations” in the war in Ukraine and in the occupied Palestinian territories. UN investigators faced “continued denial of access” from authorities in both countries, according to the report, seen by AFP before its circulation among Security Council members. Regarding Israel, “in 2025, patterns of sexual violence against Palestinians detained in Israel and the Occu...

Israel said on Wednesday it had killed the new head of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Mohammed Odeh, in a strike the day before, after killing his predecessor in a similar attack this month. Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz claimed the “commander of the armed wing of the Hamas terrorist organisation in Gaza was eliminated yesterday”. Hamas has not yet commented. “In the Prime Minister’s name and in my own, congratulations to the IDF and the Shin Bet on the brilliant execution,” Katz claimed in a post on X. “We committed ourselves to eliminating everyone who led the October 7 massacre, and that is what we will do: they are all marked for death, wherever they may be.” After announcing the strike on Tuesday, Katz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a joint statement that Odeh had “served as head of Hamas intelligence during the October 7 massacre and was appointed approximately one week ago as successor to Ezzedine al-Haddad”. Haddad was killed by an Israeli strike on May 15. “Odeh was responsible for...

Israel said on Thursday it had deported all the foreign activists seized by Israeli forces from a Gaza-bound flotilla, following global outcry over their treatment in custody. Israel’s foreign ministry spokesman, Oren Marmorstein, said that “all foreign activists from the PR flotilla have been deported from Israel”. “Israel will not permit any breach of the lawful naval blockade on Gaza,” he added. Earlier, the legal centre and rights groups representing the activists, Adalah, said all detained activists from the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla and Freedom Flotilla Coalition had been released from Israel’s Ktziot prison ahead of deportation. Adalah said it had received “official confirmation” from the Israeli Prison Service and state officials that the detainees had been released. “The majority of the participants are being transferred to Ramon Airport to be flown out of the country,” the group said. One of the organisers of the Freedom Flotilla mission, Thiago Avila, in a post on X, said, “Zohar, one of our...

Israeli authorities have begun detaining hundreds of activists seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla at the southern port of Ashdod on Wednesday, a rights group said, after Israeli forces intercepted their vessels at sea. The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkiye last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian territory, after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month. Israeli authorities said 430 activists aboard the flotilla were en route to Israel, while rights group Adalah said some had already arrived at Ashdod port and were being held there. “Having set sail toward Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and challenge the unlawful blockade, these civilian participants were forcefully abducted from international waters and taken into Israeli territory entirely against their will,” Adalah said. “These acts are a direct extension of Israel’s policies of collective punishment and starvation of Palestinians in Gaza.” The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed ...

Israel on Thursday threatened to take The New York Times to court over a piece it published denouncing allegedly widespread sexual abuse against Palestinian detainees. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have ordered the “initiation of a defamation lawsuit against The New York Times”, according to a joint statement issued by their offices. The offices said that the piece by Nicholas Kristof, a prominent opinion columnist, was “one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press, which also received the backing of the newspaper”. Kristof’s investigation is based on testimonies gathered in the Israeli-occupied West Bank from 14 men and women who said that they had been sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. The report described “a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency an...

Israel deported on Sunday two foreign activists seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, in what a rights group representing them described as a “punitive attack” on a civilian mission. Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of Greece on April 30. The pair were seized by Israeli forces and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released. “Saif Abu Keshek and Thiago Avila, from the provocation flotilla, were deported today from Israel” following an investigation, the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X on Sunday. Israel would “not allow any breach” of the blockade on Gaza, it added. Spain, Brazil and the United Nations had all called for the men’s swift release. On Wednesday, an Israeli court rejected an appeal contesting the pair’s detention. “From their abduction in international waters to thei...

Israel will release two foreign activists taken off a Gaza-bound flotilla from detention on Saturday before handing them to immigration authorities ahead of their deportation, the rights group representing them said. Saif Abu Keshek, a Spanish national of Palestinian origin, and Brazilian Thiago Avila were among dozens of activists aboard a flotilla that was intercepted by the Israeli navy in international waters off the coast of Greece on April 30. The pair were seized by Israeli forces and brought to Israel for questioning, while the others were taken to the Greek island of Crete and released. “Today, the Shabak Israeli intelligence agency informed Adalah’s legal team that Global Sumud Flotilla activists and leaders Thiago Avila and Saif Abukeshek would be released from Israeli detention today, Saturday,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement. “They will be handed to Israel’s immigration authorities later today and kept in custody pending their deportation,” it added. Adalah said it was closely monito...

WASHINGTON: Nearly 30 Democratic lawmakers have urged US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to end Washington’s longstanding ambiguity over Israel’s alleged nuclear weapons programme, arguing that such secrecy has become untenable during the ongoing war on Iran. Israel is widely believed to be in possession of nuclear weapons, though it neither acknowledges nor denies having a nuclear arsenal. In a May 4 letter addressed to Secretary Rubio, the lawmakers said the US was “currently engaged in a war against Iran, a conflict with nuclear dimensions that the administration has not adequately addressed with Congress or the American public”. The move is led by Congressman Joaquin Castro, a senior Democratic lawmaker from Texas who has served in the US House of Representatives since 2013 and is known for his work on foreign policy and intelligence-related issues, including his tenure on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. In a post on the social media platform X on Thursday, Castro said, “For nearly six decades, the US...