Category: 2. Middle East

Palestine on Sunday called for international action to prevent Israel from enforcing a decision to confiscate hundreds of dunums of Palestinian land in the southern occupied West Bank.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates following the Israeli decision, the ministry urged “serious international intervention to stop the implementation of the Israeli decision and all other illegal, unilateral occupation measures”.

It also…

British judges will rule on Monday on a legal challenge brought by a Palestinian human rights organisation seeking to block the UK from supplying components for Israeli F-35 fighter jets.

Israel has used the jets to devastating effect in its bombardment of Gaza, with both sides being accused of atrocities during a conflict that has killed tens of thousands — mostly Palestinian civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

The UK government suspended some export licences…

Ceasefire talks with Israel remain at a standstill due to the occupation’s insistence on continuing its war on Gaza, a senior Hamas official said on Sunday.

Mahmoud Mardawi, a leading member of Hamas, stated that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to reject any halt to what he described as a “criminal war” targeting innocent civilians in Gaza.

He stressed that ending the aggression and allowing humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip are…

The Israeli army has killed 785 Palestinian athletes and sports officials in Gaza and the West Bank since October 2023, the Palestinian Football Association said on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

The deaths include players and administrative staff from various sports, with the vast majority killed in Gaza and 23 in the occupied West Bank, Susan Shalabi, deputy head of the association, told Anadolu.

Shalabi said that 437 of those killed were football players, including…

Hajjar Shademani’s family waited for hours in the heat and dust after crossing the border into Afghanistan, their neat pile of suitcases all that remained of a lifetime in Iran after being deported to their homeland.

The 19-year-old and her three siblings are among tens of thousands of Afghans who have crossed the Islam Qala border point in recent days, the majority forced to leave, according to the United Nations and Taliban authorities.

Despite being born in Iran after her parents fled war…

US President Donald Trump said he could lift sanctions on Iran if the country demonstrates peaceful behavior and cooperation with Washington, Anadolu reports.

“If they can be peaceful, and if they can join us, they are not going to do any more harm, I would take the sanctions off,” Trump said in a Fox News interview aired Sunday.

“You get more sometimes with honey than you do with vinegar,” Trump said, adding sanctions relief “would make a big…

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Sunday warned that international discussions about regime change in other countries could lead the world into “hell,” responding to recent statements from Israeli officials on Iran’s government, Anadolu reports.

“No country or group of countries should discuss a change of power in other countries. If this happens, then the world will go to hell,” Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin in remarks aired by state…

More than 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June, most of them deported, as returns surge ahead of a deadline set by Tehran, the United Nations migration agency said on Monday.

The number of returns from Iran rose dramatically in recent weeks. Afghans have reported increased deportations ahead of the July 6 deadline announced by Iran for undocumented Afghans to leave the country.

From June 1-28, 233,941 people returned from Iran to Afghanistan, International Organization for Migration spokesman…

Iran warned Sunday that it had little faith in Israel’s commitment to a fragile ceasefire that ended the most intense and destructive confrontation between the two foes to date.

The 12-day war erupted on June 13, when Israel launched a bombing campaign in Iran that killed top military commanders and scientists linked to its nuclear programme. Tehran responded with ballistic missile attacks on Israeli cities.

Israel said its aim was to keep the Islamic republic from developing an atomic weapon…

The Turkish intelligence chief met on Sunday with a Hamas delegation to discuss the steps to be taken for a ceasefire and the delivery of aid in Gaza, security sources said, Anadolu reports.

According to the sources, National Intelligence Organization head Ibrahim Kalin met the delegation, led by Muhammad Darwish, the head of the leadership council of the Palestinian group Hamas.

The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza was the first item of discussion during the…