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Israel’s largest banks are facing public outrage for posting record profits during a genocide in Gaza. Banks have come under sharp criticism over the financial windfalls as emblematic of a system profiting from war, occupation and mass killing. In response, the banks are now scrambling to deflect anger with modest “relief initiatives” that many see as little more than PR manoeuvres.

The controversy centres on Israel’s five largest banks — Bank Leumi,…

One of thousands of public servants in Gaza’s Hamas-run government, Karim, a public works ministry employee, received what seemed like an ordinary message on his phone: an invitation “for a coffee”.

The text gave a time for a meeting near a school sheltering displaced people amid the wreckage and rubble of nearly two years of war between Hamas and Israel in the Palestinian territory.

Karim, who like others interviewed by AFP asked to use a pseudonym, explained how he went to the meeting in…

DUBAI (Reuters) -Iran has downgraded diplomatic ties with Australia, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, a week after Australia expelled the Iranian ambassador over accusations that Tehran directed two antisemitic arson attacks in the cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

“According to diplomatic law and in response to Australia’s action, the Islamic Republic has also reciprocally reduced the level of Australia’s diplomatic presence in Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said,…

(Reuters) -Major European powers have said they could recognise an independent Palestinian state in coming weeks. What would that mean for the Palestinians and Israel?

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD NOW?

The Palestine Liberation Organization declared the independence of a Palestinian state in 1988, and most countries in the global South quickly recognised it. Today, 147 of the 193 member states of the United Nations have recognised a Palestinian state, most recently Mexico in…