Israel | Pakistan

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on Wednesday that recognition of Israel by Pakistan was “not on the cards at all” as he highlighted the country’s support for the Palestinian cause. The minister made the remarks in an interview with France 24. The comments come as the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, led by US President Donald Trump, will be held in Washington on February 19. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar will be attending the meeting. In the interview, Asif was asked about Pakistan’s decision to join the Board of Peace and if the country would contribute troops for a military force in Gaza. “I don’t see any problem in that. It all depends on what sort of terms of reference are drafted for that peace force,” he said, highlighting that Pakistan was a part of UN peacekeeping missions. “So we have that experience. Palestine is a cause that is very close to our hearts. We have been demonstrating solidarity with them for many, many, many decades,” he said. He said that...

Israeli police said on Monday that they would deploy in force around the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramazan, which begins this week, as Palestinian officials accused Israel of imposing restrictions at the compound. Over the course of the month of fasting and prayer, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians traditionally attend prayers at Al-Aqsa — Islam’s third-holiest site, located in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured in 1967 and later annexed. Arad Braverman, a senior Jerusalem police officer, said forces would be deployed “day and night” across the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and in the surrounding area. He said thousands of police personnel would also be on duty for Friday prayers, which draw the largest crowds of worshippers. Braverman said police had recommended issuing 10,000 permits for Palestinians from the occupied West Bank, who require special permission to enter Jerusalem. He did not say whether age limits would apply, adding that the final number of people would be...

Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned Israel’s latest move to register large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property”, calling on the international community to reject its actions, according to a statement by the Foreign Office (FO). Al Jazeera reported on Sunday that the Israeli government had approved the proposal to claim large areas of the occupied territory as property of the state if Palestinians could not prove ownership, a move which prompted outcry from Palestinian group Hamas, the Palestinian presidency, and political analysts. “Pakistan strongly condemns the latest attempt by the Israeli occupying power to convert areas of the Occupied West Bank into so-called state property, and to expand illegal settlement activities,” the statement said. It pointed out that these steps clearly violated international law and relevant United Nations Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, stressing that they “must be rejected” by the international community. “The occupying power’s continued d...

Israel has joined US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington, where he met Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Visuals released earlier on Wednesday after the Netanyahu-Rubio meeting showed them holding a document with Netanyahu’s signature on Israel joining the board. Netanyahu said on X that he “signed Israel’s accession as a member of the ‘Board of Peace’”. He later discussed Iran with Trump. A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorised the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilisation force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Hamas signed off. Under Trump’s Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza’s temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts. The board will hold its first meeting on February 19 in Washington t...

Israel reopened the border between Gaza and Egypt on Monday for people on foot, a move that would allow Palestinians to leave the enclave and let back in those who want to return after fleeing Israel’s war in the enclave. The reopening of the Rafah border crossing will be limited, with Israel demanding security checks for Palestinians entering and exiting. Israel and Egypt were expected to impose caps on the number of travellers. Israel seized the border crossing in May 2024, about nine months into the Gaza war that was brought to a tenuous halt by an October ceasefire brokered by US President Donald Trump. Rafah’s reopening was an important requirement under the first phase of Trump’s broader plan to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli security official said that European monitoring teams had arrived at the crossing, which “has now opened to the movement of residents, for both entry and exit.” Foreign Journalist barred from Gaza In the first nine months of Israel’s assault in Gaza, launched af...

Israel said on Sunday it was terminating the humanitarian operations of the international charity Doctors Without Borders in Gaza after the organisation failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff. “The Ministry of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism is moving to terminate the activities of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Gaza Strip,” the ministry said. The decision follows “MSF’s failure to submit lists of local employees, a requirement applicable to all humanitarian organisations operating in the region”, it added, stating that the group will cease its work and leave Gaza by February 28. In December, the ministry announced it would prevent 37 aid organisations, including MSF, from operating in Gaza from March 1 for failing to provide detailed information about their Palestinian staff. It had alleged that two MSF employees had links with Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which the medical charity vehemently denies. On Sunday, the ministry said MSF had committed in early January ...

Pakistan, along with seven other Muslim-majority countries, condemned on Sunday the repeated violations of the ceasefire in Gaza by Israel, asserting that these actions risked undermining efforts for restoring stability at a time when regional and international partners were working collectively to advance the second phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan. The eight countries — Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan , Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and United Arab Emirates — had worked with Trump’s administration on a plan last year on a plan to end Israel’s genocide and invasion in Gaza. Implementation of the plan began in October 2025, leading to a ceasefire in Gaza more than two years after the onslaught began. Israel, however, has repeatedly violated the the truce, carrying out strikes in the Strip. Meanwhile, work is ongoing on the second phase of Trump’s plan, shifting focus from ceasefire implementation to demilitarisation, technocratic governance and reconstruction. In a joint statement, the foreign mini...

Iranian army chief Amir Hatami on Saturday warned the United States and Israel against an attack, saying his country’s forces were on high alert following Washington’s heavy military deployments in the Gulf. He also insisted the Islamic republic’s nuclear expertise could not be eliminated, after Trump said he expected Tehran to seek a deal to avoid US strikes. “If the enemy makes a mistake, without a doubt it will endanger its own security, the security of the region, and the security of the Zionist regime (Israel),” Hatami said, according to the official IRNA news agency. He noted that Iran’s armed forces were “at full defensive and military readiness”. Washington sent a naval strike group to the Middle East led by the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier, with Trump threatening to intervene militarily after a deadly crackdown by Iranian authorities on two weeks of anti-government protests. The deployment has raised fears of a possible direct confrontation with Iran, which has warned it would respond with mi...

The United States on Friday approved multibillion-dollar weapons sales to both Saudi Arabia and Israel, at a point of high tensions with Iran. The State Department said it green-lighted a $3.8-billion sale of 30 Apache attack helicopters to Israel, which has agreed to a fragile ceasefire in Gaza. “The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defense capability,” the State Department said in a statement. “This proposed sale is consistent with those objectives,” it said. Also in the package was a $1.8 billion sale of joint light tactical vehicles. The United States sends billions of dollars worth of military supplies per year to Israel, largely in aid rather than sales. Israel and Hamas reached a US-backed ceasefire in October that largely paused two years of war. Tensions are high elsewhere in the region as the United States deploys a major military contingent in waters near Iran. The State De...

Israel said on Monday it would only allow pedestrians to travel through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as part of its “limited reopening” once it has recovered the remains of the last captive in the Palestinian territory. Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed since Israeli forces took control of it during the conflict in the besieged Palestinian territory. Visiting US envoys had reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing during talks in Jerusalem over the weekend. World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pushed for more humanitarian convoys to be able to access Gaza, which has been left devastated by more than two years of bombardment and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food and other supplies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Israel had agreed to a reopening “for pedestrian passage only, ...

LAHORE: Iranian-American academic and political scientist Vali Nasr suggested on Friday that the war on Palestine had politically weakened Arab states and emboldened Israeli leaders, to the point that the latter had abandoned the two-state framework entirely. Speaking at a session titled ‘The Gaza War and the Remaking of the Middle East’, moderated by journalist Najam Sethi, Mr Nasr implied that the situation has proven detrimental to the Palestinian cause. He said Israel now believes it can pursue its objectives primarily through force. “With Arab states politically neutralised, Israeli leaders see little incentive to return to negotiations,” he added. According to him, Israeli leadership now views political compromise with the Palestinians as a security liability rather than a pathway to stability, effectively abandoning the two-state framework. Following the Gaza war, Israel moved against Hezbollah in Lebanon, significantly weakening the group’s operational capacity. The collapse of the Assad regime in Syr...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” aimed at resolving conflicts, Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that he has accepted US President Donald Trump’s invitation and will join as a member of the Board of Peace, which will be composed of leaders of the world,” the office said in a statement. The board was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of post-war Gaza, but its charter seen by AFP does not appear to limit its role to the Palestinian territory, and members have to pay up to $1 billion for a permanent spot on it. The board “seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”, reads the preamble of the charter sent to countries invited to participate. It will be chaired by Trump himself, who will also “separately serve” as the representative of the United States. Dozens of countries and leaders...

• Kazakh, Uzbek leaders ready to join; Moscow weighs ‘nuances’ • Starmer pledges UK support for Gaza reconstruction efforts • Israeli minister issues ‘us or them’ ultimatum to Netanyahu MOSCOW: The White House on Monday extended invitations to leaders from Russia, Poland and Israel to join a so-called “Board of Peace” which aims to address global conflicts and manage governance and reconstruction efforts in Gaza. While others weigh participation, Central Asian leaders moved quickly to accept. The press secretaries of Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev confirmed their leaders’ readiness to join the board. Both leaders have been courted by Trump, who invited them to the G20 summit in Miami. Meanwhile, the Kremlin said on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin received an invitation to join the board, which would be chaired by Trump. “President Putin also received an invitation to join this Board of Peace,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened a meeting of his ruling coalition partners on Sunday after objecting to the composition of a Gaza advisory panel formed by the White House, according to an official and media reports. The White House announced this week the setting up of a “Gaza Executive Board,” which would operate under a broader so-called “Board of Peace” to be chaired by US President Donald Trump as part of his 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza. The executive board, described as having an advisory role, includes Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Qatari diplomat Ali Al-Thawadi, alongside other regional and international officials. Late on Saturday, Netanyahu’s office objected to the composition of the executive board. “The announcement regarding the composition of the Gaza Executive Board, which is subordinate to the Board of Peace, was not coordinated with Israel and runs contrary to its policy,” the office of Netanyahu said. “The prime minister has instructed the foreign affair...

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaking in parliament on Sunday, warned the United States and Israel against “a miscalculation”, saying that Tehran will retaliate if it is attacked. “Let us be clear: in the case of an attack on Iran, the occupied territories (Israel) as well as all US bases and ships will be our legitimate target,” said Qalibaf, a former commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards. With the country’s government facing the biggest demonstrations since 2022, Trump has repeatedly threatened to intervene if force is used on protesters. Authorities intensify crackdown The protests began on December 28 in response to soaring prices. Authorities accuse the US and Israel of fomenting unrest. Iran’s police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said security forces had stepped up efforts to confront “rioters”. The flow of information from Iran has been hampered by an internet blackout since Thursday. Footage posted on social media on Saturday from Tehran showed large crowds marching along a str...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Sunday that Pakistan believed the recognition of the so-called “Somaliland” as an independent state by Israel was an act of “political aggression that sets a perilous precedent, threatening peace and security in the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea region, and beyond”. Dar said this while addressing the extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers in Saudi Arabia. His statement follows a joint statement by the OIC, which initiated its 22nd extraordinary session in Jeddah on Saturday. The moot has been convened against the backdrop of Israel recognising Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state, with Soma­liland’s president, Abdira­hman Mohamed Abdul­lahi, saying his state will join the Abraham Accords. Later, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar visited Somaliland, condemned by Somalia as an “unauthorised incursion”. Dar expressed Pakistan’s “unwavering support for the sovereignty, unity and terri...

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has strongly rejected Israel’s decision to recognise Somaliland, calling it a violation of Somalia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and convened an emergency meeting of its foreign ministers to discuss the issue.

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an interview published by The Economist said that he hopes to “taper off” Israeli dependence on US military aid in the next decade. Netanyahu has said Israel should not be reliant on foreign military aid but has stopped short of declaring a firm timeline for when Israel would be fully independent from Washington. “I want to taper off the military within the next 10 years,” Netanyahu told said. Asked if that meant a tapering “down to zero”, he said: “Yes.” Netanyahu said he told President Donald Trump during a recent visit that Israel “very deeply” appreciates “the military aid that America has given us over the years, but here too we’ve come of age and we’ve developed incredible capacities.” In December, Netanyahu said Israel would spend $110bn on developing an independent arms industry to reduce dependency on other countries. The US and Israeli governments had signed a memorandum of understanding for the 10 years through September 2028 that provides $38...

Israel’s military said it struck Hezbollah targets in several areas of Lebanon on Friday, a day after the Lebanese army said it had completed the first phase of its plan to disarm the group. Under US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli strikes, Lebanon has committed to disarming the resistance group, which was weakened by more than a year of hostilities with Israel, including two months of all-out war that ended with a November 2024 ceasefire. Despite the truce, Israel has kept up regular strikes in Lebanon, usually claiming it is targeting Hezbollah sites and operatives, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic, accusing the group of rearming. In a statement on Friday, the Israeli military said it struck “several areas in Lebanon”, targeting “weapons storage facilities and a weapons production site that were used for the rehabilitation and military build-up of the Hezbollah terrorist organisation”. “Additionally, several launch sites and rocket launchers, along with mi...

The United Nations on Wednesday said decades-long discrimination and segregation of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank were intensifying, and called on the country to end its “apartheid system”. In a new report, slammed by Israel, the UN rights office said “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories had “drastically deteriorated” in recent years. “There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement. “Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives — every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices,” he added. “This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.” A number of independent experts affiliated with the UN have described the situation in ...