Dead include those killed in a strike on the European hospital complex near Khan Younis
Associated Press, citing local hospitals, reports that at least 22 children were killed in Gaza overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday by Israeli airstrikes.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met online with US president Donald Trump, Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Syrian president Ahmed al-Sharaa, Reuters reports, citing Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency.
Continue reading...Bombardment signals new escalation after Netanyahu said Israel would ‘go in with full force to complete the operation’
An intense wave of Israeli bombing has reportedly killed dozens of people in Gaza, including many children, signalling a new escalation at a critical moment in regional politics.
The exact number of deaths from the attacks was unclear, with estimates ranging from about 30 to more than 50, making it one of the highest tolls in a single morning for many weeks.
Continue reading...Meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa in Saudi Arabia seen as key towards recognition of new Syrian authority’s legitimacy
Donald Trump has met Syria’s president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Saudi Arabia and said that Washington is exploring normalising ties with Syria, a day after an announcement that all US sanctions on Syria would be lifted.
The US president met Sharaa, a former militant who fought against US forces in Iraq, before a conference of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), part of Trump’s four-day visit to the Middle East, where he is expected to court Gulf allies for investments in the US. Trump is due to land in Doha next, where he will meet the Qatari leader, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.
Continue reading...Two reports published today catalogue ‘gruesome yet avoidable accidents’ on construction sites despite the Gulf kingdom’s claims that work-related deaths have fallen
Thousands of migrant workers are likely to die in Saudi Arabia as a result of a building boom fuelled by the 2034 Men’s World Cup and other major construction projects, human rights groups have warned.
The Gulf kingdom has seen a surge in demand for cheap migrant labour, with a significant increase in foreign workers since 2021, as it starts preparations for hosting the World Cup and drives forward projects including the futurist megacity Neom.
Continue reading...A consortium would help Tehran deal with US objections and tie in Gulf states to its enrichment programme
Iran has floated the idea of a consortium of Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to enrich uranium as a way of overcoming some US objections to Iran continuing to have its own enrichment programme.
The proposal would be one way of locking the Gulf states into supporting the Iranian position that it must be continued to be allowed to enrich.
Continue reading...American soldier Edan Alexander meets family at Israel border after masked fighters hand him over to Red Cross
Hamas has freed the last living US citizen it held in Gaza, soldier Edan Alexander, in a unilateral move US president Donald Trump described as a “good faith step” towards ending the war and bringing home all remaining hostages.
The release of 20-year-old Alexander, who spent 584 days in captivity after he was seized from his base on 7 October 2023, was agreed with little Israeli involvement beyond practical coordination on the ground.
Continue reading...UK Foreign Office criticised by campaigners as Ahmed al-Doush given sentence for charges thought to relate to deleted tweet
A British national arrested in Saudi Arabia on charges that appear to relate to a deleted tweet has been jailed for 10 years, according to British lawyers and campaign groups representing the family.
Ahmed al-Doush was arrested in August and, while it is understood that UK Foreign Office officials were allowed into the Saudi court for his hearing, the British government has been criticised for a lack of action since his arrest.
Continue reading...Four senators, including Cory Booker, say they will press for vote against president’s plan to take $400m gift from Qatar
Top Democrats in the US Senate are pushing for a vote on the floor of the chamber censuring Donald Trump’s reported plan to accept a $400m luxury jet from the royal family of Qatar for use as Air Force One and later as a fixture in the Trump’s personal presidential library.
Four Democratic members of the Senate foreign relations committee said on Monday that they would press for a vote later this week. They said that elected officials, including the president, were not allowed to accept large gifts from foreign governments unless authorized to do so by Congress.
Continue reading...The US president will not visit Israel on a trip to the Middle East and his envoy has reportedly said Netanyahu’s government is drawing out the war
Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff didn’t mince his words. In a meeting late on Sunday with former hostages and relatives of those still held in Gaza, he told them Israel is drawing out a war the US wants to end, local media reported.
On the eve of the release of Edan Alexander, the last living American being held by Hamas, Witkoff spelt out the gulf between his boss and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu.
Continue reading...Kurdistan Workers’ party says it will dissolve its guerrilla forces, months after call to do so from its jailed leader
A Kurdish militant group whose attacks and insurgency against Turkey have spanned more than four decades has declared it will disarm and disband, after a call from its jailed leader earlier this year.
The Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) announced the decision to dissolve its guerrilla forces, heeding a watershed announcement from Abdullah Öcalan three months ago.
Continue reading...News of present known as ‘flying palace’ from royal family to replace Air Force One has ignited accusations of bribery and corruption
Donald Trump has indicated he is ready to accept a luxury plane being offered to the US president as a gift from Qatar’s royal family, almost immediately igniting accusations of bribery and corruption as well as commensurate criticism.
A statement from Qatar on Sunday acknowledged it had held discussions with the US about “the possible transfer” of a plane to be used temporarily by Trump as his presidential aircraft, usurping Air Force One. The emirate’s statement denied a final decision over the transfer had been made – or that it was a gift.
Continue reading...President eager to discuss trade and investment but no plans to visit Israel amid tensions over Gaza war
Donald Trump this week will embark on the first foreign trip of his second administration with a tour of the Middle East, as he looks to secure investment, trade and technology deals from friendly leaders with deep pockets amid turbulent negotiations around numerous regional conflicts, including Israel’s war in Gaza.
The tour through the Middle East is largely a repeat of his first international trip in 2017, when he was feted in the region as a transactional leader eager to secure quick wins and capable of providing support for the regional monarchies’ economic and geopolitical interests.
Continue reading...Babies such as Siwar Ashour are suffering from malnutrition as crucial supplies run out amid Israel’s total blockade on aid
Siwar Ashour was born into war and hunger and has known nothing else. She is now in real danger of dying without ever having known a moment of peace or contentment.
The six-month-old Palestinian girl, whose painfully emaciated body symbolised the deliberate starvation of Gaza when she appeared on the BBC this week, was only 2.5kg when she was born on 20 November last year.
Continue reading...Palestinian rights group says remarks criticising a Lancet analysis on impact of the conflict are ‘sickening’
A UK-based advocacy group for Israel has been criticised for suggesting a reduction in obesity resulting from the war in Gaza may increase life expectancy there.
The comments by UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), which came amid warnings of impending famine in Gaza, were condemned as “sickening” by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
Continue reading...The rules-based world order is in retreat and violence is on the rise, forcing countries to rethink their relationships
In a week in which former allies in a redividing globe separately commemorated the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war, the sense of a runaway descent towards a third world war draws ever closer.
The implosion of Pax Americana, the interconnectedness of conflicts, the new willingness to resort to unbridled state-sponsored violence and the irrelevance of the institutions of the rules-based order have all been on brutal display this week. From Kashmir to Khan Younis, Hodeidah, Port Sudan and Kursk, the only sound is of explosions, and the only lesson is that the old rules no longer apply.
Continue reading...Any Trump administration efforts to send non-Libyans to the north African country would violate a prior court order
Immigrants in Texas who were told they would be deported to Libya sat on a military airfield tarmac for hours on Wednesday, unsure of what would happen next, an attorney for one of the men has said.
The attorney, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told the news agency Reuters that his client, a Vietnamese construction worker from Los Angeles, was among the immigrants woken in the early morning hours and bussed from an immigration detention center in Pearsall, Texas, to an airfield where a military aircraft awaited them.
Continue reading...Groups say plan to resume limited humanitarian assistance under strict Israeli rules ‘risks enabling war crimes’
Aid groups have voiced alarm at US moves to pressure them into accepting an Israeli proposal to resume limited humanitarian assistance to the war-ravaged territory under strictly controlled conditions.
The Trump administration has attempted to strong-arm international agencies – including the United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) – into accepting Israel’s stringent rules for resuming deliveries, according to sources familiar with the discussions and news reports.
Continue reading...RTÉ asks European Broadcasting Union for talks after 72 former contestants call for ban on Israeli broadcaster
Ireland’s public broadcaster has asked the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for a discussion about Israel’s inclusion in the Eurovision song contest, as 72 former contestants called for the Israeli broadcaster Kan to be banned from next week’s event in the Swiss city of Basel.
The director general of Ireland’s RTÉ, Kevin Bakhurst, said in a statement on Wednesday that he was “appalled by the ongoing events in the Middle East and by the horrific impact on civilians in Gaza, and the fate of Israeli hostages”.
Continue reading...Move sparks outrage in Iran as diplomats try to broker deal between Tehran and Washington over nuclear programme
Donald Trump plans to announce while on his trip to Saudi Arabia next week that the US will now refer to the Arabian Gulf or the Gulf of Arabia rather than the Persian Gulf.
The move has prompted outrage from Iranian leaders, and last-minute efforts are being made to persuade Trump to pull back from offending Iran in the midst of vital talks on the future of the Iranian nuclear programme. “If Trump went ahead with the proposal he would manage to unite every Iranian, pro- or anti-regime, against him, and that is a near impossible achievement,” one diplomat said.
Continue reading...Lawyers say the Turkish national, who has been held in a Louisiana Ice center for two weeks, was illegally detained
A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a judge’s order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated.
A judicial panel of the New York-based US second circuit court of appeals ruled in the case of Rümeysa Öztürk after lawyers representing her and the US justice department presented arguments at a hearing on Tuesday.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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