Category: 2. Middle East

Thousands of Israelis took to the streets under a heavy police presence for Jerusalem’s annual Pride march Thursday, a decade after the murder of a teenager by a Jewish extremist during the same event.

The fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Shira Banki on July 30 that year, in an attack that also wounded six others, prompted police to step up their surveillance of Pride festivities in Jerusalem in the years that followed.

Thursday’s march snaked through central Jerusalem, with participants carrying…

Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli attacks killed at least 37 people on Thursday, as a US-backed aid group reported it had resumed operations after a one-day hiatus.

The Israeli military has recently stepped up its campaign in Gaza in what it says is a renewed push to defeat Hamas, whose October 2023 attack sparked the war.

But Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva rejected the term “war” to describe the conflict in the devastated Palestinian territory, accusing Israel instead of…

Hamas’s lead negotiator said the group was ready to enter a new round of talks aimed at sealing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, where rescuers said Israeli strikes killed at least 37 people on Thursday.

Negotiator Khalil al-Hayya made the declaration in a speech marking the start of Eid al-Adha festivities, typically a joyous date on the Muslim calendar, but one many Gazans say they will not be able to celebrate this year amid crushing shortages.

“We reaffirm that we are ready for a new,…

Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the Netherlands today announced that it has frozen institution-wide collaborations with three Israeli universities.

“Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) is immediately freezing its collaborations with Bar-Ilan University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the University of Haifa,” it said in a statement.

Depending on the advice of the independent Advisory Committee on Sensitive Collaborations (ACGS), the decision…

Palestine said today that the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza will not bring security or stability, after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in the enclave.

“The continued genocidal war in Gaza, settler terrorism in the West Bank…and the use of the US veto in the UN Security Council will not bring security or stability to anyone,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement cited by the…

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul criticised Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip at a press conference with his Israeli counterpart Gideon Saar in Berlin today, again calling for more humanitarian aid to be allowed into the enclave, Reuters reports.

“That is also the prevailing international law,” he said.

Wadephul also decried the Israeli government’s announcement that it would allow 22 more settlements in the occupied West Bank, saying it…

More than 130 news outlets and press freedom groups called Thursday for Israel to immediately lift a near-total ban on international media entering Gaza, while calling for greater protections for Palestinian journalists in the territory.

Israel has blocked most foreign correspondents from independently accessing Gaza since it began its war there following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by militant group Hamas.

An open letter shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and…

Three Palestinian journalists were killed and several others injured this morning in what Palestinian officials described as a targeted Israeli attack on the courtyard of Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, the Palestinian Information Centre reported.

According to medical sources at Al-Maqassed, an Israeli drone fired directly at the hospital’s outdoor area, killing three journalists and wounding numerous others, including civilians and members of the…