Category: 2. Middle East

A new poll found a significant decline in American adults’ support for the Israeli military’s aggression against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The poll conducted by Gallup showed only 32 per cent of Americans support the Israeli military aggression in Gaza, while 60 per cent oppose them. 

The new result is significantly lower than the first poll conducted in November 2023 when nearly half of Americans approved of the Israeli operation.

The poll was…

ANKARA — Turkey will begin supplying natural gas to Syria on Saturday, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced Wednesday. 

“We will begin exporting the gas coming from Azerbaijan to Syria, to Aleppo, via [Turkey’s border city of] Kilis,” Bayraktar told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.

What happened: Bayraktar said Ankara and Baku agreed to swap and redirect Azerbaijani gas through Turkey to Syria. “Qatar will be involved in terms of financing,” he added.

Syria will…

LONDON (Reuters) -The co-founder of a pro-Palestinian campaign group on Wednesday won her bid to bring a legal challenge against the British government’s decision to ban the group under anti-terrorism laws.

Huda Ammori, who helped found Palestine Action in 2020, asked London’s High Court to give the go-ahead for a full challenge to the group’s proscription, which was made on the grounds it committed or participated in acts of terrorism.

Earlier this month, the High Court refused Ammori’s…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to travel to Israel on Wednesday for talks on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Axios reported, citing two U.S. officials.

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Katharine Jackson; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

By Andrew Gray

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union is considering partially suspending Israeli access to funding under its flagship research programme, in what would be the bloc’s first action taken against Israel in response to its actions in Gaza.

EU member states’ ambassadors held initial talks on the proposal on Tuesday. Here is an outline of the proposal, its significance and the prospects for its adoption:

WHAT HAS BEEN PROPOSED?

The $100 billion Horizon Europe programme provides…

An Israeli court on Tuesday ordered the release of an illegal settler charged with killing a Palestinian activist in the occupied West Bank.

Odeh Mohammad Khalil al-Hathalin, 31, who took part in the making of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land as a consultant, was killed by fire from an illegal Israeli settler in the Palestinian village of Umm al-Kheir on Monday night.

Video footage shared by Israeli rights group B’Tselem showed Yinon Levi opening…

By Maayan Lubell and Nidal al-Mughrabi

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Israel could threaten to annex parts of Gaza to increase pressure on the militant group Hamas, an Israeli minister said on Wednesday, an idea that would deal a blow to Palestinian hopes of statehood on land Israeli now occupies.

The comment by security cabinet member Zeev Elkin came a day after Britain said it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes steps to relieve suffering in Gaza and reaches a…

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia said on Wednesday it was concerned about the threat of new strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, and that a deal on Tehran’s nuclear programme could be reached through dialogue.

Israel and the United States bombed Iranian nuclear sites in June with the stated aim of preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Iran denies any such intention.

“Regular threats towards Iran to launch new missile and bomb strikes on its nuclear facilities cannot but cause serious…

By Nuha Sharaf

SUSIYA, West Bank (Reuters) -Palestinians in the village of Susiya in the Israeli-occupied West Bank thought life could not get worse as Jewish settlers were attacking them repeatedly and ripping apart their precious olive groves.

Then settlers armed with knives set upon their water sources, villagers said.

“They want us to live without water, and here they also cut the electrical wires,” said Mousa Mughnem, 67, who lives with his 60-year-old wife Najah in the village near the…

The Israeli army stormed the Handala aid ship, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, last Saturday as it attempted to reach the Gaza Strip carrying aid for Palestinians facing severe hunger. All 21 activists on board, who were seen surrendering with their hands raised, were detained in a dramatic operation captured through videos and photographs by the coalition

Among those arrested was Chris Smalls, the American labour activist known for leading the successful…