Israel | Pakistan

International condemnation and criticism followed Israel’s targeting of Hamas leaders in Doha on Tuesday — the first of its kind on Qatari territory. Qatar, which has been a key mediator in efforts to broker a truce in Gaza, said Israeli strikes targeted the residential headquarters of Hamas’s political bureau residing in the Gulf country, where the group’s senior leadership is based. A senior Hamas source told Al Jazeera that leaders of the group were targeted while discussing United States President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. The strikes were carried out jointly by the military and the Shin Bet security agency, the two bodies said in a statement. Neither Israeli officials, nor domestic media have confirmed whether the strikes hit their intended targets. Hamas has also not commented on the fate of its leaders. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he ordered the strikes in response to a Monday shooting in Jerusalem that killed six people and was later claimed by Hamas. Among th...

Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official targeted by Israel in Qatar on Tuesday, has become an increasingly central figure in the leadership of the Palestinian group since both Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar were killed last year. Israeli officials told Reuters the attack was aimed at top Hamas leaders, including Hayya, its exiled Gaza chief and top negotiator. Two Hamas sources told Reuters the group’s ceasefire negotiation delegation in Doha survived the attack. At the heart of ceasefire negotiations during the fighting that erupted two years ago, Hayya has been widely seen as the group’s most influential figure abroad since Haniyeh was killed by Israel in Iran in July 2024. He is part of a five-man leadership council that has led Hamas since Sinwar was killed by Israel last October in Gaza. Hailing from the Gaza Strip, Hayya has lost several close relatives, including his eldest son, to Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, and is a veteran member of the group. Regarded as having good ties with Iran, he has ...

Israel launched an airstrike against Hamas leaders in Qatar on Tuesday, expanding military actions that have ranged across the Middle East to include the Gulf Arab state where the Palestinian group has long had its political base. Qatar, which has acted as a mediator alongside Egypt in talks on a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old conflict in Gaza, condemned the attack as “cowardly” and called it a flagrant violation of international law. Two Hamas sources told Reuters that Hamas officials in the ceasefire negotiating team survived the attack, which followed an evacuation order in Gaza City, where Israel is waging an offensive to try to destroy the group and its military capabilities in the Gaza Strip. A senior Hamas source told Al Jazeera that leaders of the group were targeted while discussing United States President Donald Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza. “The IDF (Israeli military) and ISA (security agency) conducted a precise strike targeting the senior leadership of the Hamas terrorist organi...

MOFA says continued expansion of illegal settlements reflects Israel’s disregard for international human rights

The world’s biggest academic association of genocide scholars has passed a resolution saying the legal criteria have been met to establish that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, its president said on Monday. Eighty-six per cent of those who voted among the 500-member International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) backed the resolution declaring Israel’s “policies and actions in Gaza” had met the legal definition set out in Article II of the 1948 UN Convention on genocide. Israel launched its devastating assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Hamas attacked Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and capturing more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israel’s military action has killed 63,000 people, damaged or destroyed most buildings in the territory and forced nearly all its residents to flee their homes at least once. A global hunger monitor relied on by the United Nations says parts of the territory are now suffering a man-made famine, which Israel also denies. The three-p...

Israel’s military has taken the first steps of a planned operation to take over Gaza City, Israeli military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin said on Wednesday. Following a clash with Hamas south of Khan Younis in the strip on Wednesday, he said: “We will deepen the attack on Hamas in Gaza City, a stronghold of […]

Dozens of people in Gaza gathered on Monday for the funeral of five Al Jazeera staff members and a sixth reporter killed in an Israeli strike, in an attack which drew widespread condemnations from across the world. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza caused by its offensive since October 2023, with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and experts already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Anas Al Sharif, aged 28, was among a group of four Al Jazeera journalists and an assistant who were killed in a “directed assault” on a tent opposite Shifa Hospital in eastern Gaza City, Gaza officials and Al Jazeera said. An official at the hospital said two other people were also killed in the strike. A sixth journalist, Mohammad Al-Khaldi, a local freelance reporter, was also killed in the airstrike, according to medics at Al Shifa Hospital. Mourners stood amid bombed-out buildings in the courtyard of Al Shifa hospital to pay ...

Madrid: Spain and seven other European nations on Sunday condemned Israel’s plan to occupy Gaza City, warning it would kill large numbers of civilians and force nearly a million Palestinians from their homes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Friday greenlighted plans for a major operation to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave […]

JERUSALEM/CAIRO: Israel’s far-right finance minister has demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu scrap his plan to seize Gaza City in favour of a tougher one, while Italy said on Sunday the plan could result in a “Vietnam” for Israel’s army. Netanyahu’s security cabinet, of which the minister, Bezalel Smotrich, is a member, approved the plan by […]

Tel Aviv: Thousands took to the streets in Israel’s Tel Aviv on Saturday to call for an end to the war in Gaza, a day after the government vowed to expand the conflict and capture Gaza City. Demonstrators waved signs and held up pictures of hostages still held captive in the Palestinian territory as they […]

ANKARA: Muslim nations must act in unison and rally international opposition against Israel’s plan to take control of Gaza City, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Saturday after talks in Egypt. Regional powers Egypt and Turkey both condemned the plan on Friday. Ankara has said it marked a new phase in what it called […]

UN chief calls the move dangerous escalation as several countries request urgent UNSC session Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt condemn Israeli cabinet’s approval of plan to take illegal control of Gaza City Germany suspends arms exports to Israel.

UNITED NATIONS: An average of 28 children are being killed each day in Gaza amid Israel’s restrictions on the delivery of direly needed humanitarian assistance and a collapse of vital services, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). According to Al Jazeera report, “Death by bombardments. Death by malnutrition and starvation. Death by lack of […]

Athens: The mayor of Athens became embroiled in a war of words Sunday with the Israeli ambassador to Greece who accused city authorities of not doing enough to clean up antisemitic graffiti. Ambassador Noam Katz told the Kathimerini daily in comments published Sunday that Israeli tourists felt “uncomfortable” in Athens because the mayor Haris Doukas […]

WASHINGTON: U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called recent moves of France, the United Kingdom and Canada to recognise Palestine as a state, saying their efforts are useless if Israel does not approve it, ARY News reported. Marco Rubio highlighted that the Palestinian state recognition cannot be reformed as this ‘requires’ Israeli consent. Marco […]

Israel is evacuating most of its diplomatic mission staff in the United Arab Emirates after Israel’s National Security Council sharpened its travel warning for Israelis staying in the Gulf country. The UAE’s Israeli and Jewish community has grown more visible since 2020, when the UAE became the most prominent Arab state in 30 years to establish formal ties with Israel under a US-brokered agreement dubbed the Abraham Accords. “We are emphasising this travel warning given our understanding that terrorist organisations (the Iranians, Hamas, Hezbollah and Global Jihad) are increasing their efforts to harm Israel”, the NSC said in a statement. “They are driven by heightened motivation to exact revenge following Operation Rising Lion, in addition to the anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian incitement which has intensified since the start of Operation Iron Swords, and even more so in response to Hamas’ starvation campaign,” it said, using the names for its military assaults on Iran and Gaza. The NSC statement said “past ...

Israel said on Sunday it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped aid to the enclave, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world. Israel has been facing growing international criticism over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with Amnesty International already declaring its actions in Gaza as a “genocide”, which Tel Aviv rejects. Indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight. Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza on March 2 after ceasefire talks broke down. In late May, it began allowing a small trickle of aid to resume, amid warnings of a wave of starvation. Military activity will stop from 10am to 8pm (12pm to 10pm PKT) until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah and in Gaza City, to the north. The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine...

New York: Columbia University said Tuesday it has issued various punishments, including expulsions and degree revocations, against various students involved in anti-Israel protests on campus. The sanctions, which a student group said targeted nearly 80 people, come as the New York institution negotiates with President Donald Trump’s administration to restore $400 million in cut federal […]

Iran has replaced air defences damaged during last month’s conflict with Israel, Iran’s Defah Press news agency reported on Sunday quoting the regular army’s deputy for operations, Rear Admiral Mahmoud Mousavi. During the conflict in June, Israel’s air force dominated Iran’s airspace and dealt a heavy blow to the country’s air defences while Iranian armed forces launched successive barrages of missiles and drones on Israeli territory, successfully hitting strategic targets. “The Zionist enemy sought to destroy Iran’s defence capabilities, and some of our defence systems were damaged in this war; But with the efforts of my comrades, the damaged systems were replaced and deployed in predetermined locations,” Mousavi said. Admiral Mousavi added that Israel was not able to achieve its objectives and that the United States and NATO helped Tel-Aviv in the war. Prior to the war, Iran had its own domestically-made long-range air defence system Bavar-373 in addition to the Russian-made S-300 system. The report by Defa...

Israel bombed the Syrian army’s headquarters in Damascus on Wednesday after warning the government to leave the country’s Druze minority alone, as authorities announced a ceasefire in the community’s southern heartland after deadly sectarian clashes. Syrian government forces entered the majority-Druze city of Sweida on Tuesday with the stated aim of overseeing a ceasefire agreed with Druze community leaders following days of fighting with local Bedouin tribes. However, witnesses reported that the government forces joined with the Bedouin in attacking Druze fighters and civilians in a bloody rampage through the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said that the violence in Sweida province since Sunday had left more than 300 people dead, including government forces, local fighters and 27 Druze civilians killed in “summary executions … by members of the defence and interior ministries”. The Syrian presidency vowed to investigate the “heinous acts” in Sweida and to punish “all those proven to...