Category: 2. Middle East

By Michelle Nichols, Olivia Le Poidevin, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Andrew MacAskill

UNITED NATIONS/LONDON (Reuters) -Britain said on Tuesday it would recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel takes steps to relieve suffering in Gaza, where starvation is spreading, and reaches a ceasefire in the nearly two-year war with Hamas.

The warning, which drew a harsh Israeli rebuke, came after a hunger monitor said a worst-case scenario of famine is unfolding and immediate action is needed to…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The State Department said on Tuesday that the United States repatriated a U.S. citizen minor from a displaced persons camp in northeast Syria for unification with the child’s family.

“Approximately 30,000 individuals from more than 70 countries remain in two displaced persons camps in northeast Syria, the majority of whom are children under the age of 12; they deserve a chance at life outside the camps,” the State Department said in a statement.

Washington said the only…

A UN conference in New York on a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel has adopted an “integrated and actionable framework,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Tuesday, Anadolu reports.

“The final document of the conference constitutes an integrated and actionable framework to implement the two-state solution and achieve peace and security for all,” he told the conference, as cited by the state-run Al Ekhbariya…

The UN experts on Tuesday condemned the Israeli use of “thirst as a weapon” to kill Palestinians, Anadolu reports.

“Israel is using thirst as a weapon to kill Palestinians,” the experts said in a statement and called the cutting off of water and food a “lethal bomb” killing mostly children and babies.

Finding the sight of infants dying in their mothers’ arms “unbearable,” the experts noted that “this catastrophe” was “predicted” as…

France announced Tuesday that it will airdrop a total of 40 tons of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip starting Friday, Anadolu reports.

“We will organize, starting Friday and in close coordination with Jordanian authorities, four flights carrying 10 tons of food each into the Gaza Strip,” Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told French broadcaster BFM TV, as he is co-chairing a high-level conference on a two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict…

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday drew attention to the starvation in blockaded Gaza, which has been under Israel’s relentless attacks for 22 months now, saying that Gaza shows scenes “worse than Nazi camps” with people being starved and deprived of water before the world’s eyes, Anadolu reports.

“The terrorist state of Israel has been committing genocide against our brothers in Gaza, brutally massacring them for 22 months in a 360…

A fourth humanitarian aid convoy entered the southern Syrian province of Suwayda on Tuesday, according to state media, Anadolu reports.

State news agency SANA said the convoy, consisting of 22 trucks, crossed into the province through the Busra al-Sham crossing in eastern Daraa.

It carried 27,000 liters of fuel, 2,000 food baskets, 2,000 hygiene kits, 10,000 bottles of drinking water, 40 tons of flour, as well as medical supplies, the agency reported.

SANA added that the convoy was prepared…

The UK sharply rebuffed Israel on Tuesday for its restrictions on the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza’s starving population, calling the policies an “affront” to the UN charter, Anadolu reports.

“The devastation in Gaza is heartbreaking. Children are starving, and Israel’s drip-feeding of aid has horrified the world. These are an affront to the values of the Charter of the United Nations,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy told the Security…

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not discuss London’s plan to recognise a Palestinian state unless Israel takes a number of steps to improve life for Palestinians.

Starmer said on Tuesday that Britain was prepared to recognise a Palestinian state in September at the United Nations General Assembly in response to growing public anger over the images of starving children in Gaza.

“We never did discuss it,” Trump told…

Turkiye declared its participation in the Bogota joint statement of the Hague Group, noting that it was not bound by the references made in the joint statement to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Anadolu reports.

The Hague Group’s joint statement on July 16 announced new measures to be taken to restrain Israel’s assault on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and defend international law at large.

In a note to the Colombian…