Category: 2. Middle East

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-delayed corruption trial was postponed yet again this week, the Times of Israel has reported. This time due to Israel’s bombardment of Syria, the latest in a pattern of escalating regional military campaigns widely viewed as attempts to deflect attention from mounting legal troubles and growing domestic unrest.

The Tel Aviv District Court announced the suspension of Netanyahu’s scheduled testimony on…

Following recent appeals from the Christian community of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, church leaders have intensified their efforts to pressure Israeli authorities to end ongoing settler violence, Anadolu reported.

A “very detailed” file documenting recent attacks by Israeli settlers is set to be delivered to the Vatican for examination by the Secretariat of State and then by Pope Leo XIV himself, Italian daily il Fatto Quotidiano reported.

On Monday, a…

The Israeli army struck a Catholic church in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, causing injuries among civilians, according to an Anadolu reporter.

Fighter jets hit the Catholic Holy Family Church in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City, injuring several displaced civilians sheltering at the church, including the parish priest, Gabriel Romanelli, he said.

Romanelli was transferred to the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital to receive medical treatment for his leg injury,…

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared before the Tel Aviv District Court on Wednesday to continue his testimony in his corruption trial.

The hearing briefly paused when Netanyahu’s military secretary, Major General Roman Gofman, arrived at the courtroom, prompting the premier to request his presence, Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported.

The trial session was attended by US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee signalling Washington’s support for…

By Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler

ANKARA (Reuters) -President Tayyip Erdogan risks losing support among nationalist Turkish voters in making peace with Kurdistan Workers Party militants, whose burning of weapons last week was dismissed by some as a stunt.

A backlash to Erdogan’s call on Saturday for wide parliamentary support for the process underlines the challenge he faces in balancing nationalist and Kurdish demands, with a failure to do so potentially jeopardising the plan’s…

By Tim Cocks and Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) -South Africa’s main coalition partners are embroiled in a spat over how to respond to looming tariffs from a hostile Trump administration, after the smaller party said the president’s aide was denied a U.S. visa to negotiate with Washington.

The Democratic Alliance said on Tuesday that the United States had formally rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa’s chosen interlocutor, Mcebisi Jonas, and had denied him a diplomatic visa in May.

The…

Hundreds of Greeks gathered Wednesday at Piraeus Port, one of the biggest in Europe, to block a shipment of military-grade steel to Israel, Anadolu reports.

The participants, including port workers and members of pro-Palestinian progressive organizations and associations as well as sympathizers of various leftist parties, carried Palestinian flags and banners expressing solidarity with the Palestinian cause and denouncing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

Markos…

The spiritual leadership of Syria’s Druze minority affiliated with Hikmat al-Hajri has accused the Syrian government of violating the ceasefire agreement and carrying out indiscriminate bombing in the country’s southern Sweida province. 

The leadership has even appealed to Israel and the United States to intervene.

“We appeal to the free world and all its influential powers. We address our appeal to His Excellency (US) President Donald Trump, (Israeli)…

By Timour Azhari

DAMASCUS (Reuters) -Western diplomats were passing near Syria’s defence ministry in Damascus in an armoured convoy when Israel struck the building with several missiles on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the matter, including a Syrian eyewitness.

No-one in the convoy was injured and it continued on its way, the people said, declining to give further details on the nationalities or number of those involved.

Israel launched powerful airstrikes on Damascus on…

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Shas Party announced the resignation of its ministers from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government on Wednesday, escalating tensions over the compulsory military draft for Haredi Jews.

However, the party, which has 11 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, said that it will remain in the ruling coalition.

The decision followed a meeting of the party’s Council of Torah Sages, which voted unanimously to step down from ministerial roles…