Israeli | Pakistan

The foreign ministers of Pakistan and seven other Arab-Islamic countries on Friday strongly condemned what they described as Israel's escalating actions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, denouncing repeated incursions by Israeli settlers and provocative measures at the holy site.

A day after Israeli far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir led hundreds of Israeli Jews into Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa mosque compound, Pakistan and seven other countries on Friday issued a joint statement condemning the “provocative actions”. The joint statement, shared by the Foreign Office, was issued by the foreign ministers of Pakistan, Egypt, Turkiye, Indonesia, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The ministers condemned “in the strongest terms the Israeli escalation at Al Aqsa Mosque, particularly the continued mass settlers’ incursions led by extremist Israeli ministers, under the protection of the Israeli forces, the raising of the Israeli flag within its courtyards, the erection by Israeli police of two tents, and all other inflammatory acts”. Access to the site is governed by a decades-old “status quo” arrangement between Israel and Jordan, whose religious foundation administers the place. Under that arrangement, Jews may visit but are not permitted to pray there, whil...

Israeli police impose restrictions on Palestinian worshippers; occupiers mark 'anniversary' of 'destruction of Temple'

Joseph Aoun says Israeli withdrawal, army control, state-led reconstruction needed for process

Israeli army issues 22 eviction, demolition orders for Palestinian homes in north of occupied East Jerusalem

US Vice President JD Vance has said that late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “seemed to be connected” to elements of the “Israeli deep state” as well as the “highest levels of American intelligence”, while also acknowledging the Trump administration mishandled its response to the case. He made these remarks in a podcast episode with host Joe Rogan that was published on Wednesday. During the episode, Rogan brought up that most people thought Epstein was linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, to which Vance replied, “Yeah, Mossad or CIA or some other deep state, whether in America, Israel, or another country.” “He clearly had connections to the upper, the highest levels of American intelligence. He clearly had connections to the highest levels of Israeli intelligence,” he said. He added that he found the Epstein case “interesting” because, “as much as I know, [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu, not a particularly popular person in the United States of America right now, Epstein seemed to be connected to t...

Israeli forces carried out 26 incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in June

Israeli fire killed 9-year-old Tala Abu Matar in central Gaza, medics said; military gave no immediate comment

As brightly coloured kites climb above Burin, a Palestinian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, children race across a sun-baked hillside, watching their creations soar into the sky. Behind them, the red-roofed houses of Har Bracha, an Israeli settlement, overlook the village below. Established in 1983, the settlement, illegal under international law, is one of several that encircle Burin, a village of a few thousand people. Palestinians and solidartiy activists fly kites towards the Israeli settelment of Har Bracha from the village of Burin, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on July 10, 2026. —AFP Every summer since 2009, residents have gathered on this hill for a kite festival, held on land that has been partly lost after being illegaly occupied by settlers. “We want to tell the settlers that this is our land, this is our sky. If we can’t reach those lands anymore, our kites can,” Ghassan Najjar, one of the festival’s organisers, told AFP. While the festival is primarily for children, it also...

US Democratic lawmaker Ro Khanna said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with US-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run. Speaking with Reuters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his group’s van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank, where residents face frequent settler attacks. “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” said Khanna, a progressive lawmaker from California in the US House of Representatives. “And these hoodlums come in with machine guns, M4, an American-made machine gun, and they detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF, and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans,” Khanna said, referring to the Israeli military. US Democratic Represen...

An Israeli strike in Gaza prior to the kickoff of the FIFA World Cup clash between Argentina and Egypt killed a top Palestinian aid official who helped organise screenings of the game across the strip, according to media reports. The Associated Press said the blast that killed Mohamed al-Wahidi, an official with Egypt’s relief arm in Gaza, turned “what was supposed to be a moment of celebration — the live screening of a potential upset against Argentina by an Arab team — into a reminder of how the near-daily Israeli strikes are continuing to kill civilians despite a truce reached in October”. The report also quoted Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya, the director of Shifa Hospital, as saying that the strike that killed al-Wahidi on Tuesday hit a car in the Sabra neighborhood of Gaza City at dusk. He said three others were killed in the attack, including the driver, Ahmed Daghmush, 33, and two brothers, 10-year-old Hamza al-Deri and 8-year-old Fari, According to the publication, the Israeli military said that al-Wahidi wa...

Israeli forces blow up homes in Aitaroun, carry out an explosion in Houla, Lebanese media reports

Palestinian Mohammad Salameh was building a home for his family in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where his recently engaged son was meant to start married life. Instead, before construction was complete, a group of Israeli settlers seized the property. Video filmed earlier in the week and verified by Reuters showed at least six settlers moving around on the roof of the two-storey house, which sits below a nearby hill. Salameh said appeals to the Israeli military and police brought no help. Now he fears his home, which like many others in the Palestinian territory is surrounded by Israeli settlements and smaller outposts, is lost forever. Other houses in the area could suffer the same fate, he said. “Only God knows, if there is law and order then they will leave,” Salameh said. “If they succeed in taking one, then the rest will follow.” Reuters was unable to reach the settlers for comment. One of them could be seen walking on the house’s roof on Thursday. An Israeli settler sits on the roof of the Palestinia...

BEIRUT - The death toll from the Israeli aggression on Lebanon since March 2 has risen to 4,297, with 12,196 others wounded, according to Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health.

UNITED NATIONS - The continued expansion of areas under Israeli control in Gaza since October’s ceasefire agreement is placing civilians at greater risk and severely constraining humanitarian operations, the UN and humanitarian partners warned on Wednesday.

GAZA - Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least six people, including a child, in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, health officials in the Palestinian enclave said.

Lebanon says 3,912 killed in Israeli attacks since March 2; Israel reports 36 deaths, including civilians

United States Vice President JD Vance on Thursday issued a rare rebuke of Israel during a White House press briefing, criticising Israeli lawmakers who had opposed the memorandum of understanding signed between the United States and Iran. Under the deal, the two sides have agreed on a framework to end the war, reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and a 60-day timeline for further talks. Vance’s comments come amid rising tensions between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “If I was in the cabinet of the Israeli government, I might not be attacking the only powerful ally that I have anywhere left in the entire world,” Vance told reporters. “Anybody in Israel who thinks their biggest problem is the president of the United States needs to wake up and smell the reality of the situation.” Talking about the MoU itself, the vice president noted that Iran will “have to perform” and honour its end of the deal. “If they don’t perform as we’ve said before, they don’t get any of the bene...

European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas and Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar exchanged words on X after Kallas reportedly compared Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to South Africa’s apartheid-era policies. Saar said he was severing “all contact” with the EU official after Kallas posted that the EU remains committed to a constructive relationship with Israel. In a post on X addressed to Saar, the EU’s top diplomat said: “I value our dialogue and engagement, and I’m open to continue in that spirit, respectfully and constructively.” Kallas added that the EU remains committed to the two-state solution and has reiterated that the bloc has condemned Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In a post on social media, Saar said Kallas had reportedly “compared Israel to the racist apartheid regime” during a visit to Mexico and that as a result he was severing contact until she retracted the comments. In subsequent posts on X, the Israeli ...

Since Sunday morning, Israeli forces have carried out airstrikes and gunfire across Gaza, says medics