Israeli | Pakistan

United States President Donald Trump said on Wednesday “nothing” would jeopardise the ceasefire in Gaza, after Israel carried out air strikes on the Palestinian territory accusing Hamas of violating the truce, which the group denied. Gaza’s civil defence agency said that Israeli attacks had killed at least 50 people, including 22 children, and wounded around 200. “At least 50 killed, including 22 children and a number of women and children, as a result of the ongoing Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip since last night,” Mahmud Bassal, spokesman for the agency, told AFP. Around 200 people were wounded “in a clear and flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement”, he said, calling the situation in Gaza “catastrophic and terrifying”. Trump defended Israel’s actions on Wednesday, saying it “should hit back” if Israeli soldiers were killed, but added that “nothing’s going to jeopardise” to truce. “They killed an Israeli soldier. So the Israelis hit back. And they should hit back,” Trump told reporters on Air Force...

At least two people were killed and four others were injured on Tuesday after an Israeli strike on the Sabra neighborhood south of Gaza City, Gaza’s civil defence said. Israeli planes launched strikes on Gaza City after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of violating a ceasefire in the Palestinian territory. He ordered the Israeli military to carry out “powerful attacks”. “Following security consultations, Prime Minister Netanyahu instructed the military to immediately carry out powerful strikes in the Gaza Strip,” a statement from his office said. This development came after the Israeli military accused Hamas of staging its search for the remains of a Gaza captive’s body, one of 28 the group had agreed to hand over under a ceasefire deal. “Yesterday (Monday) Hamas operatives were documented removing body remains from a structure that had been prepared in advance and burying them nearby,” the military said in a statement, attaching drone footage which it said showed the act. The aerial footage sh...

United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Washington does not view yesterday’s strike carried out by Israel in Gaza as a violation of a US-backed ceasefire, terming it an act of “self-defence”. Israel claimed it struck a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group on Saturday, accusing the individual of planning to attack Israeli troops. However, Islamic Jihad denied it was planning an attack. Speaking aboard US President Donald Trump’s plane during a trip to Asia, Rubio said: “We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire.” The US top diplomat added that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defence as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt and Qatar that saw Hamas release the remaining living hostages held in Gaza this month. “They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that,” Rubio insisted. Rubio said the ceasefire in Gaza, which remains in force between Israel and Hamas just over two years since the confli...

Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned Israel’s attempt to extend its so-called “sovereignty” over parts of the Occupied West Bank, including illegal Israeli settlements, through a draft law introduced in the legislature of the occupying power.

There was anger on Monday in Israel after police banned the Israeli Premier League’s Tel Aviv derby amid chaotic scenes, triggering complaints from the clubs and political opposition. The crowd trouble at Sunday’s abandoned match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Hapoel Tel Aviv comes amid tensions over a ban preventing Israeli fans from attending an upcoming Europa League away game against English side Aston Villa. The match in Tel Aviv was called off after what a police spokesman described as “disorderly conduct, riots, the hurling of objects, smoke grenades, fireworks, injured officers and damage to the stadium infrastructure”. Speaking to public broadcaster KAN, he said: “This is not a soccer game: this is severe disorder and violence.” After the police order, the Bloomfield Stadium, the home ground for both teams, was evacuated, with police on horseback intervening to control the 30,000 fans. Hapoel’s management was infuriated by the police decision and tactics. “From the preliminary discussions before the ga...

SAN FRANCISCO: A US judge has granted an injunction barring Israeli spyware maker NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users but slashed a $168 million damages award at trial to just $4m. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton ruled on Friday that NSO Group’s behaviour fell short of a “particularly egregious” standard needed to support the jury’s calculations on a financial penalty. But in the ruling, she said the court “concluded that defendants’ conduct causes irreparable harm, and there being no dispute that the conduct is ongoing” the judge granted WhatsApp owner Meta an injunction to stop NSO Group’s snooping tactics at the messaging service. “We applaud this decision that comes after six years of litigation to hold NSO accountable for targeting civil society members,” WhatsApp boss Will Cathcart said in a statement. Evidence at trial showed that NSO Group reverse-engineered WhatsApp code to stealthily install spyware targeting users, according to the ruling. The spyware was repeatedly redesigned to escape detecti...

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg revealed that she was beaten, humiliated and threatened with being “gassed in a cage” during her time in Israeli custody, Swedish news outlet Aftonbladet reported in an interview published on Wednesday. Greta was one of 450 people aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian aid mission involving over 40 vessels which aimed to deliver food, water and medicine to the Gaza Strip amid Israel’s two-year onslaught on the besieged enclave. The boats were intercepted by the Israeli navy on October 1, with Greta and all other activists being arrested and kept in Israeli custody. She was released and deported to Greece on October 6. In her interview, Greta recounted her treatment in Israeli custody, which ranged from humiliation, threats of violence and physical beatings. “She doesn’t want headlines about herself and the torture she says she was subjected to,” Aftonbladet reported. “That was one of the first things she said on the evening she returned home, at a press conference in ...

Iran on Tuesday denounced “baseless claims” made by United States President Donald Trump, calling Washington “the largest sponsor of terrorism”. Addressing Israel’s Knesset on Monday ahead of joining an international peace summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, Trump said that Iran wants to reach a peace deal with the US “even if they said, ‘We don’t want to make a deal,’”. In a statement carried by the state news agency IRNA, the foreign ministry said: “The US, as the world’s largest generator of terrorism and supporter of the terrorist and genocidal Zionist (Israeli) regime, has no moral authority to level accusations against others.” “The repetition of false claims regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme can in no way justify the joint crimes of the US and the Zionist regime” in violating Iran’s soil, the ministry said. Israel launched a surprise attack on Tehran on June 13, targeting military, nuclear, and civilian sites as well as senior military commanders and nuclear scientists. Tehran launched retalia...

The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said Sunday that one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has been working with the Lebanese army to support a November ceasefire that sought to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and militant group Hezbollah that culminated in two months of open war. “Just before noon yesterday, an Israeli drone dropped a grenade that exploded near a UNIFIL position” in Kfar Kela, the force said in a statement published on Sunday. “One peacekeeper was lightly injured and received medical assistance.” Earlier this month, UNIFIL said Israeli drones had dropped multiple grenades near peacekeepers providing security for workers clearing rubble left over from the war. And in a similar episode in September, UNIFIL said Israeli drones had dropped four grenades near peacekeepers, with Israel insisting...

Former senator Mushtaq Ahmad, detained by Israeli forces during last week’s Gaza aid flotilla interception, has left Jordan for Pakistan.

“This is not just a sea journey, it’s not an adventure, but rather it is a task that is extremely dangerous,” said former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan in an interview with Dawn.com just before he embarked on the Global Sumud Flotilla mission to Gaza. The Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), with around 500 participants from over 44 countries, including Pakistan, attempted to break Israel’s siege on Gaza and distribute humanitarian aid to the malnourished and injured civilians suffering from two years of genocide in the enclave at the hands of Israel. Former senator Khan’s words rang true from the very beginning of the mission, when two GSF aid boats were struck by incendiary devices in Tunisian waters. The ‘Family’ and ‘Alma’ boats, which held the steering committee of the aid convoy, were attacked on September 8 and 9. The aid boats were attacked once again on September 23 near Crete; this time, there was international condemnation, with Italy, Spain and Turkiye dispatching warships to aid the boats. T...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Tuesday confirmed that former Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, who was detained by Israeli forces during the Gaza-bound Sumud Flotilla mission, has been released from custody and is now safe at the Pakistan Embassy in Jordan.

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was arrested by Israel when they intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, called out world governments for continuing to enable Tel Aviv’s genocide in the Gaza Strip after she arrived in Greece on Monday. The 45-vessel flotilla, with activists and politicians on board, left Spain last month to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, where the United Nations has warned of famine. The flotilla was intercepted by the Israeli navy, with commandos boarding the boats and arresting participants. Former Pakistani senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was also on board and is currently in Israeli custody. In her first public comments since her release by Israeli authorities, Greta emphasised that the real story is not the interception of the flotilla, but the genocide being carried out in the Gaza Strip. “The Global Sumud Flotilla was the biggest-ever attempt to break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege by sea,” the Swedish activist said. “It is a story of global, international solidarity, of people s...

The Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on Sunday, said that Pakistan was actively engaged with its international partners to ensure the safety and prompt repatriation of its citizens who were illegally detained by the Israeli occupying forces.

Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Thursday strongly condemned the Israeli military’s assault on the Global Sumud Flotilla bound for Gaza, terming it “another blatant act of terrorism.

Pakistan has strongly condemned the deadly assault by Israeli forces on the Global Sumud Flotilla, a humanitarian mission comprising more than 40 civilian vessels carrying over 450 aid workers from 44 countries.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Saturday that a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tanker with 27 crew members, including 24 Pakistanis, was attacked by an Israeli drone while it was docked at a port in Yemen earlier this month. After the Foreign Office (FO) said earlier today that Pakistanis aboard the LPG tanker were safe and sound and making their way out of Yemeni waters, Naqvi posted on X that the vessel was attacked on September 17 while it was docked at the Ras Issa port, which was under the control of Houthi rebels. Israel has launched repeated attacks on Houthi targets during the Gaza conflict, as the Iran-backed rebels fire missiles and drones at Israel and Red Sea shipping, claiming solidarity with the Palestinian cause. According to Naqvi, apart from Pakistanis, the LPG tanker’s crew included two Sri Lankans and a Nepali. He said the vessel’s captain was also a Pakistani. Naqvi added that an LPG tank had exploded following the attack, but the crew managed to extinguish the fire. “The vessel was ...

ISLAMABAD - Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Tuesday visited the embassy of Qatar in Islamabad and met with Qatari Ambassador Ali bin Mubarak Al-Khater, where he condemned recent Israeli attacks on Qatar and expressed solidarity with the Gulf state.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in Doha on Tuesday and reaffirmed Pakistan’s “all-out support and solidarity” for the Gulf state after last week’s Israeli attack on its capital. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the emergency Arab-Islamic Summit in Doha, where leaders from the Arab League and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday called for a review of ties with Israel following its deadly strike on Hamas members in the Qatari capital as they discussed a Gaza ceasefire proposal. “While reaffirming Pakistan’s all-out support and solidarity with Qatar at this critical time, the prime minister termed Israel’s attack of September 9, a flagrant violation of Qatar’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as a serious breach of international law,” read a press release issued today by the government-run Press Information Department (PID). Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal Syed A...

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Doha on Sunday to attend the Emergency Arab-Islamic Summit, convened in response to the Israeli attack on Qatar.