Israel | Pakistan

Israel “cannot live without an enemy” and its government is now trying to portray Turkiye as one, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Monday. “After Iran, Israel cannot live without an enemy,” Fidan said in a televised interview with Anadolu Agency. “We see that not only Netanyahu’s administration but also some figures in the opposition — though not all — are seeking to declare Turkiye the new enemy,” he said. “This is a new development in Israel… turning into a state strategy,” he added. Turkiye, a fierce critic of Israel, had joined diplomatic efforts with Pakistan and Egypt aimed at de-escalation during the US-Israeli war on Iran. Tensions between Turkiye and Israel have steadily escalated since the latter’s war on Gaza erupted following Hamas’s Oct 7, 2023 attacks. Netanyahu ‘described as the Hitler of our time’: Turkiye The dispute entered a new phase over the weekend after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned his US counterpart Donald Trump of “possible provocations and sabotage” that could je...

BEIRUT: Israeli strikes killed more than a dozen people in Lebanon and Gaza on Saturday, while an Israeli settler shot dead a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank, according to officials. The widespread violence came a day after plans were announced for potential ceasefire talks between Lebanon, Israel and the United States. Israeli strikes on a village near Sidon in south Lebanon on Saturday killed eight people and wounded nine others, five of them seriously, the Lebanese health ministry said. Lebanon’s health ministry also said a total of 10 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the country’s south on Saturday, with state media reporting Israeli raids on more than a dozen locations. Earlier in the day, officials said strikes killed 10 people in the Nabatiyeh district. The ministry said the dead included a member of the Lebanese civil defence and two paramedics from the Islamic Health Committee, decrying Israel’s “systematic” targeting of emergency workers. Hezbollah slams planned negotiations with I...

Israel has approved the establishment of 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media reports and the watchdog Peace Now, which said the decision was taken “secretly” in early April. “The security cabinet secretly decided to establish 34 new settlements,” Peace Now said in a statement released late on Thursday. The 34 settlements come on top of 68 others already approved since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing government came to power in 2022. The decision has not been officially published by any government body, and the defence ministry, in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank, declined to respond to AFP’s questions. “We are not addressing this issue,” a spokesperson for the ministry told AFP. According to news channel i24News, 10 of the 34 settlements are already existing outposts, which are illegal under Israeli law, but will now be retroactively legalised under the decision. The remaining 24 are yet to be built. All settlements are illegal under internat...

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday he had ordered his ministers to begin direct talks with Lebanon, pushing for Hezbollah’s disarmament amid mounting concern that its ongoing strikes could cause the fragile US-Iran truce to unravel. A Lebanese government official told AFP shortly after Netanyahu’s announcement that Beirut “wants a ceasefire” declared before starting any negotiations with Israel, a day after deadly strikes across the country. At least 300 people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the bombardment on Wednesday, the Lebanese health ministry said, while Hezbollah said it was engaged in close-quarters combat against Israeli forces on the ground on Thursday in the south Lebanon town of Bint Jbeil. Netanyahu’s order for direct negotiations with Lebanon’s government was focused on disarming Hezbollah and establishing peace, according to a statement from his office, but he offered no immediate respite from the bombardment. “Lebanon wants a ceasefire before starting nego...

Israel carried out its heaviest strikes on Lebanon since the conflict with Hezbollah broke out last month, even as the Iran-aligned group paused attacks on northern Israel and Israeli troops in Lebanon under a two-week US-Iran ceasefire. Consecutive explosions shook Beirut, sending smoke billowing across the capital, as Israel’s military said it had launched the largest coordinated strike of the war. More than 100 Hezbollah command centres and military sites were targeted in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon, it said. The strikes killed 182 people and wounded 890 across the country, Lebanon’s health ministry said. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam has declared Thursday a national day of mourning after Israeli strikes shook the country. In Beirut, Reuters reporters saw people on motorcycles picking up wounded and transporting them to hospitals because there were not enough ambulances to get them in time. A group of firefighters worked to put out flames in a car park after one strike left more tha...

A gunman was killed and two others wounded in a shootout on Tuesday with police outside the Israeli consulate in Istanbul, the local governor said, adding two officers were lightly wounded. Governor Davut Gul confirmed the killing of one of the assailants during the attack that took place around 12:15 pm (2:15pm PKT). It was not immediately clear if the intended target was the Israeli consulate. No Israeli diplomats “are currently on Turkish soil”, a source familiar with the matter told AFP. Israeli diplomatic missions had been evacuated “not only in Turkiye but throughout the region for security reasons” shortly after the October 7, 2023 attack that followed Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, according to the same source. Israel said it would not be cowed down, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the “treacherous attack” and vowed to fight “all kinds of terrorism”. “We will not allow … provocations to harm Turkiye’s climate of security,” Erdogan said in a televised speech. “We appreciate ...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday sacked his chief of staff following the publication of leaked comments in which he allegedly made racist remarks. “Ziv Agmon will leave his post in the coming days once his successor, Ido Norden, takes office,” Netanyahu said in a post on X late on Sunday. Agmon, who has been serving as Netanyahu’s acting chief of staff and spokesperson, provoked outrage last week after reportedly referring to Jews of Moroccan descent as “baboons” and disparaging members of Netanyahu’s Likud party, as well as the prime minister’s wife and son. Norden’s appointment represented a sudden reversal. Less than two hours earlier, the Likud party’s official Telegram channel had quoted Netanyahu as saying he wanted Agmon to remain in the post for the sake of “stability and continuity”. Norden, however, has drawn scrutiny of his own. Israeli journalists reported on Monday that he had created fake X accounts to promote his book on the “deep state,” in which he attributes Israel’s failu...

China called on Friday for Palestinians’ rights to be protected after Israel approved a bill to allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. Under the new law, passed by Israel’s parliament on Monday, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as “terrorism” will face the death penalty as a default sentence. “The legal rights of the Palestinian people should be respected and protected,” China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said when asked about the bill at a press briefing on Friday. “We also hope relevant parties will cease actions that escalate tensions and exacerbate conflict,” she said, without mentioning Israel by name. “China believes that any law should fulfil legal principles such as equality and justice and should not discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, religion or nationality or political views,” Mao added. A host of countries have criticised the bill, which was supported by Israeli...

Eight Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, on Thursday strongly condemned Israel’s move to pass a law making death by hanging a default sentence for Palestinians convicted in military courts of deadly attacks. The joint statement, shared by the Foreign Office, was released by the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Turkiye, Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The statement said that the countries “strongly condemned the Israeli occupying power’s enactment of a law in its Parliament (Knesset), that allows the imposition of the death penalty in the occupied West Bank and its de facto application against Palestinians”. They warned against the “increasingly discriminatory, escalating Israeli practices that entrench a system of apartheid and a rejectionist discourse that denies the inalienable rights and the very existence of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory”. “The ministers underscored that this legislation constitutes a dangerous escalation...

Fear for her son’s fate kept Maisoun Shawamreh awake through the night in the occupied West Bank following the Israeli parliament’s approval of a law permitting the execution of Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks. “The mothers of prisoners — none of us slept last night,” Shawamreh told AFP as she joined a protest in Ramallah against the law on Tuesday. Her son has been in detention for three years, awaiting sentencing on charges of attempted murder. “He may or may not be subject to execution,” she said, uncertain of what lies ahead. Relatives of Palestinian prisoners hold placards and shout slogans during a rally in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on March 31, 2026, against a bill approved by Israel’s parliament that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks. — AFP Under the new law, passed in parliament late Monday, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank convicted by military courts of carrying out deadly attacks classified as “terrorism” wil...

The United States said on Monday it respected Israel’s right to set its own laws after its parliament introduced the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of killings, a move sharply criticised by European nations and rights groups. “The United States respects Israel’s sovereign right to determine its own laws and penalties for individuals convicted of terrorism,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We trust that any such measures will be carried out with a fair trial and respect for all applicable fair trial guarantees and protections.” The United States is the only Nato country that still practices capital punishment. It has long been the key diplomatic and military supporter of Israel. Meanwhile, the European Union condemned Israel’s approval of the bill, terming it “discriminatory”. “The death penalty bill in Israel is very concerning to us in the EU. This is a clear step backwards — the introduction of the death penalty, together with the discriminatory nature of the law,” EU spokesman Anouar El An...

Israel’s parliament approved a bill on Monday that would allow the execution of Palestinians convicted on terror charges for deadly attacks, a move that has been criticised as discriminatory and immediately drew a court challenge. Sixty-two lawmakers, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted in favour and 48 against the bill, championed by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. There was one abstention and the rest of the lawmakers were not present. The legislation would make the death penalty the default punishment for Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank found guilty of intentionally carrying out deadly attacks deemed “acts of terrorism” by an Israeli military court. The legislation says that the sentence may be reduced to life imprisonment under “special circumstances”. Palestinians in the West Bank are automatically tried in Israeli military courts. Meanwhile, under the legislation, in Israeli criminal courts anyone “who intentionally causes the death of a person with th...

• Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain hit by Iranian missiles, drones; strike wounds US troops at Saudi airbase • Drone strike disrupts shipping hub in Salalah • Explosions rock Tehran as Israeli attacks intensify; Iran halts steel production • IRGC warns of retaliation against regional economic infrastructure • Israel reports 5,689 wartime injuries; hospitals under pressure • Vance says US nearing exit but war to continue a ‘little longer’ TEHRAN: Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced their entry into the Middle East war on Saturday by launching a barrage of ballistic missiles towards Israel, while Gulf countries came under missile fire and Israeli forces struck Iran, as the war raged into its second month with Washington expressing hopes for progress in talks with Tehran. The intervention of Iran’s Yemeni allies in the US-Israel war on Iran will spark concern about disruptions to Red Sea shipping, with trade from the Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz already choked off. With Hormuz all but impassable, many shipments to an...

The ability of Israel’s highly sophisticated air defences to keep intercepting Iranian attacks is coming under scrutiny as the Middle East war drags on into a second month. The military has dismissed reports that it is running low on the interceptors used to shoot down the steady stream of Iranian missiles and Hezbollah rockets fired at Israel. However, some analysts suggest that the war on Iran has significantly drained allied resources, with long-range interceptors among the most severely depleted. Israel has a multi-layered air defence array, with a variety of systems intercepting threats at different altitudes. The top tier consists of the anti-ballistic missile Arrow systems, with Arrow 2 operating both within the Earth’s atmosphere and in space and Arrow 3 intercepting above the Earth’s atmosphere. Below that sits David’s Sling, which was created to target medium-range threats, including drones, shorter-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Israel’s famed Iron Dome system is the third tier and w...

Airstrikes reportedly carried out by Israel struck areas near the Pakistan Embassy and the residence of Pakistan’s ambassador in Tehran on Thursday night, according to a report by Türkiye Today.

Israel launched strikes across Iran on Thursday, hours after US President Donald Trump said Tehran wanted a deal to end the nearly four-week war despite its top diplomat rejecting any talks with Washington. The conflict has mushroomed to draw in nations around the Middle East, sending energy markets into a tailspin and threatening to torpedo the global economy. Iran, under near-daily bombardment since a joint US-Israeli attack started the war on February 28, was hit early on Thursday by what the Israeli army said was “a wide-scale wave of strikes targeting infrastructure”, including in the central city of Isfahan. In turn, an Iranian missile attack activated sirens across central Israel, including Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem, on Thursday morning, according to the Israeli military, the first launches it identified from Iran in more than 14 hours. Trump, whose daily statements have swung wildly from threatening to conciliatory, said talks to end the war were ongoing with Iran, but that officials in Tehran w...

Two Iranian missiles struck southern Israel on Saturday, injuring more than 100 people in the most destructive attack of the three-week war, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowing to retaliate “on all fronts”. The strikes tore open the facades of residential buildings and carved craters into the ground. First responders said 75 people were injured in the town of Arad, 10 of them seriously. Hours earlier, 33 were wounded in nearby Dimona, where AFPTV footage showed a large hole gouged into the ground next to piles of rubble and twisted metal. Dimona hosts a facility widely believed to be the site of the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, although Israel has never admitted to possessing nuclear weapons. The Israeli army told AFP there had been a “direct missile hit on a building” in Dimona, with casualties reported at multiple sites, including a 10-year-old boy in serious condition with shrapnel wounds. In Arad, emergency workers combed through the rubble of heavily damaged buildings. Netanyahu vowed to...

Protesters heckled and booed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday during a visit to Australia’s largest mosque for Eidul Fitr prayers, voicing anger over his stance on ally Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Some in Australia’s Muslim and Jewish communities are angry over a fine line walked by the centre-left government since Israel began its military campaign in Gaza, expressing concern for Palestinians, repeatedly urging a ceasefire, and backing Israel’s right to self-defence. Video images showed protesters interrupting proceedings about 15 minutes after Albanese and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke joined worshippers at Lakemba Mosque in western Sydney to mark the end of Ramazan. Demonstrators booed, told Albanese and Burke to “Get out!” and called them “genocide supporters”, referring to Israel’s killing of Palestinians in Gaza. “Dear brothers and sisters, keep calm a little bit,” one of the organisers told the crowd, urging people to sit down and stop filming the exchange. “It is Eid. It is a joyful day.” ...

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Thursday called on the US and Isreal to end the war on Iran while urging Tehran to stop “attacking your neighbours”. “Let me start by two clear messages. First, to the United States and to Israel: It’s high time to end this war that is risking to get completely out of control, causing immense suffering on civilians and with propagation around the global economy, that is really dramatic with potential tragic consequences, especially for the least developed countries,” Guterres told reporters in Brussels after he met with European Union leaders. Then, turning his attention to Iran, he said: “Stop attacking your neighbours; they were never parties to the conflict.” Guterres’s remarks come as the US-Israel war on Iran rages on. It began was Washington and Tel Aviv launching strikes on Iran on February 28, which also resulted in the assassination of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. The war has expanded since, with Iran targeting US assets and bases in Gulf cou...

The Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday issued a statement rejecting the comments made by Israel’s ambassador to India, calling them a “baseless characterisation”. The FO statement referred to a video clip of the Israeli ambassador circulating on social media and said: “We firmly reject this baseless characterisation. The real record of aggression and rogue conduct is evident in the illegal occupation, the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and the indictment of Israeli leadership in international courts. “Responsible states uphold international law — not deflect from it.” While the statement did not specify which clip was being referred to, it was issued after a video of Israel’s ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, during an interview with Indian news anchor Arnab Goswami began circulating on social media. During the interview, Goswami asked Azar about a defence pact signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia — which was signed in September 2025 and states that “any aggression against either country shall be ...