Israel | Pakistan

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...

Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday slammed last month’s attacks by Israel and the United States on Iran as “unacceptable” as he attended a ministerial meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in China’s Tianjin. The SCO is a 10-nation Eurasian security and political grouping whose members include China, Russia, Pakistan, India, and Iran. The group’s foreign ministers meet as a precursor to the annual summit of its leaders, which will be hosted by China this autumn in Tianjin. On June 13, Israel launched an unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran that targeted military and nuclear sites as well as residential areas, and killed senior military commanders, nuclear scientists and civilians. The attacks began days before a planned meeting between Tehran and Washington aimed at reviving nuclear negotiations. The US, which had been in talks with Iran since April 12, joined Israel in carrying out its own strikes on June 22, targeting Iranian nuclear sites at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz. Iranian authori...

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh yesterday firmly dispelled speculation that the United States is exerting pressure on Pakistan to recognize Israel.

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, has clarified that there is no pressure from Washington for Islamabad to recognize Israel.

Posts from multiple users on social media platform X on Thursday shared a video clip, claiming it showed journalist Absar Alam urging Pakistan to explore the benefits of recognising Israel. However, the viral clip is incomplete and he is actually questioning whether recognising Israel would bring any real benefits to Pakistan. The Abraham Accords, brokered by the United States in 2020, are landmark agreements for diplomatic relations between Israel and several Arab nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. These accords paved the way for formal ties, such as embassies and trade deals, underpinned by mutual interests in security, economic collaboration, and technology exchange. While celebrated as a diplomatic shift in the Middle East, the accords also sparked debate and resistance in Pakistan. Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif have both affirmed that Pakistan will not join, asserting that any recognition of Israel would contradict its longstanding supp...

Iran’s foreign minister has held talks with Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, the Saudi foreign ministry said, two weeks after a ceasefire between regional rivals Iran and Israel began. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said his country hoped the truce would contribute to regional stability, and emphasised Riyadh’s position “in supporting dialogue through diplomatic means as a path to resolving disputes,” the ministry said in a post on X early on Wednesday. According to the Saudi ministry, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi “expressed his gratitude” to Riyadh for its condemnation of Israel’s attacks on Iran last month. Israel launched its unprecedented bombing campaign on Iran on June 13, targeting military and nuclear facilities as well as residential areas. The strikes killed more than 1,000 people in Iran, including senior military commanders and nuclear scientists, according to Tehran. Israel, in turn, was hit by waves of drone and missile fire from Iran, which Israeli authorities said left at lea...