Gaza

As world leaders talked about acting against Israel at the UN General Assembly, more than 360 Palestinians in Gaza were killed, with many more injured, starved and displaced by the ongoing genocide. Israel has killed 66,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.

Israeli tanks are advancing in Tal al-Hawa, Sabra and other neighbourhoods of Gaza City in their ground invasion.

Hamas has issued what it calls a “warning” that the lives of two captives held in Gaza City are in danger as Israeli tanks push deeper inside several neighbourhoods of the besieged urban centre, where tens of thousands of Palestinians are trapped by Israel’s ground invasion and bombardment.

The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian group, said on Sunday that contact has been lost with fighters holding Omri Miran and Matan Angrest after “brutal military operations and violent targeting in the Sabra and Tal al-Hawa neighbourhoods during the last 48 hours”.

“The lives of the two captives are in real danger, and the occupation forces must immediately withdraw to the south of Road 8 and halt aerial sorties for 24 hours starting from 18:00 this evening (15:00 GMT), until an attempt is made to extract the two prisoners,” it said.

Hamas released a “farewell picture” of captives in Gaza this month in another attempt to stop the Israeli army as it systematically destroys Gaza City and displaces hundreds of thousands of starving Palestinians once again.

Israel said 48 captives remain in Gaza, 20 of whom are alive. But the country has refused to stop the war despite being increasingly accused of committing genocide and as Israeli families call and protest for a comprehensive deal to end the war and bring back all captives.

Their pleas have not been heeded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, and relatives and supporters are blaming the government for their prolonged captivity.

The political wing of Hamas said in a statement earlier on Sunday that the group has not received any new ceasefire or peace proposals from mediators Qatar and Egypt, even as United States President Donald Trump continues to predict an imminent ceasefire, which he has done several times in recent weeks.

The group confirmed that negotiations remain halted after Israel tried to assassinate top Hamas leaders in Doha on September 9 as they gathered to review a new ceasefire proposal presented by Trump.

But Hamas said it is “ready to study any proposal from the brother mediators with positivity and responsibility, in a manner that preserves the national rights of our people”.

Far-right Israeli ministers said on Sunday that they oppose a 21-point plan presented by Trump and any other deal that would put an end to the war before eliminating Hamas.

In a post on X, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said: “Mr. Prime Minister, you have no mandate to end the war without a decisive defeat of Hamas.”

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said he would “never agree to a Palestinian state – even if it is difficult, even if it has a price, and even if it takes time”.

More than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the start of the war in October 2023, according to the enclave’s Ministry of Health.

Dozens more Palestinians were killed in air strikes and shelling or while seeking aid on Sunday, including a child in a bombardment of the Sabra neighbourhood. Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis city reported an infant died due to malnutrition and inadequate medical treatment.

Israeli tanks are also inching closer towards the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which used to be the largest medical complex in Gaza but now lies mostly in ruins after several previous Israeli sieges.

Muhammad Abu Salmiya, director of the hospital, said on Sunday that his team is committed to keeping the facility running as long as possible as patients and displaced people are sheltering there.

Greta Thunberg has pushed back on criticism that a Gaza-bound flotilla she is a part of is a publicity stunt, saying no one would imperil themselves purely for attention.

The Swedish activist is aboard one of 52 boats that form the Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF), which is travelling toward Gaza with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Palestinians there.

Israeli authorities have ridiculed the GSF flotilla and similar seaborne attempts to reach the territory, calling the boat Thunberg travelled on in June a “selfie yacht”.

Asked about these criticisms of the flotilla by the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, the activist said: “I don’t think anyone would risk their life for a publicity stunt.”

Speaking while sailing off the Greek coast, she said the flotilla was not just a humanitarian mission but was also sending a message to people in Gaza that “when our governments fail to step up, the people will step up”.

International aid agencies have been attempting to get food and medicine into the Palestinian territory – but note Israel is restricting the flow of supplies. Israel claims it is attempting to stop those supplies falling into the hands of Hamas, and has approved a US-backed aid agency.

Last month, a UN-backed body confirmed that there was famine in Gaza and the UN’s humanitarian chief said it was the direct result of Israel’s “systematic obstruction” of aid entering the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called this an “outright lie”.

Thunberg said the purpose of the flotilla was to “break Israel’s illegal and inhumane siege on Gaza by sea”. The Israeli military has long controlled the waters that border Gaza.

Earlier this month, the flotilla came under attack by drones which dropped unidentified objects onto boats outside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said.

Another suspected drone attack on Wednesday, off the coast of Crete, led Spain and Italy to deploy naval ships to assist the flotilla.

Addressing the incidents, Thunberg accused Israeli officials of making “baseless threats” that violate international law, and asked: “Why would they attack a peaceful humanitarian mission aiming to bring humanitarian aid to a starving population?”

Israel has not commented on the drone attack, but has previously said it would not let the flotilla reach its destination.

Thunberg and 11 other activists were detained by Israeli authorities in June after they intercepted another boat heading for Gaza with a token amount of aid in the Mediterranean.

She was held in Tel Aviv for a day before being deported to France.

Thunberg accused Israel of illegally kidnapping her and the other activists while they were in international waters. Israel said it had prevented a breach of the maritime blockade around Gaza.

As many as 100,000 people in Berlin rallied in support of Palestinians in what was Germany’s largest Gaza protest to date. The demonstration, dubbed ‘All Eyes on Gaza’, demanded an end to German support for Israel. Police were filmed violently arresting participants.

More than 100,000 people rallied in Berlin, protesting against German support for Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrators marched from Berlin’s City Hall to the Grosser Stern on Saturday, following a call from a broad coalition of some 50 groups, including pro-Palestinian organisations, Medico International, Amnesty International, and the opposition Left Party, for a large demonstration.

Organisers of the All Eyes on Gaza – Stop the Genocide rally demanded “an end to German complicity” in Israel’s genocidal war in the Palestinian enclave.

They also called for “an end to all military cooperation with Israel. This includes the import, export, and transit of weapons, ammunition, and other military equipment.”

“The actions of the Israeli government have long been described as genocide by experts and international organisations, and the International Court of Justice is investigating them as such. While it is clear that the Israeli military is committing mass atrocities in Gaza, the German government continues to deny the systematic violence,” organisers said in a statement.

The crowd chanted “Free, free Palestine” and “Viva Palestine”, holding up posters reading “Stop the genocide in Gaza”, “Never again for all”, and “Freedom for Palestine”. Many protesters also waved Palestinian flags.

They called for an immediate halt to German arms exports to Israel, for humanitarian aid access to Gaza, and for European Union sanctions against Israel.

A new survey released on Tuesday showed that 62 percent of German voters believe Israeli actions in Gaza constitute genocide, putting mounting pressure on the centre-right government to reassess its stance towards Israel.

The representative poll, conducted by YouGov, indicated that this sentiment crosses political lines, with 60 percent of voters from Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU bloc viewing Israel’s military campaign as genocide against Palestinians. Among voters of the coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD), the figure was higher at 71 percent.

While Chancellor Merz and Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul have recently sharpened their criticism of Israel’s military offensive and blockade of humanitarian aid to Gaza, they have so far avoided using the term genocide, referring instead to the “disproportionate” use of force by the Israeli military. Nor have they decided to recognise the State of Palestine, as many other nations have in recent days, including France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada.

For Abeer Hassan, looking after her autistic son, Abdallah, has been perilous amid Israeli bombardment, displacement.

Amid relentless forced Palestinian displacement in Gaza under intense Israeli bombardment, taking care of children with special needs becomes even more perilous.

Abeer Hassan, looking after her autistic son, Abdallah, in Deir el-Balah, says the constant Israeli explosions terrify him.

“As the people started fleeing the area, we were also urged to leave,” Hassan told Al Jazeera.

“Abdallah used to watch cars filled with displaced families fleeing. He would come back to the tent very tense and nervous, and using sign language,” she added.

Hassan explained that they first reached a displaced camp called Ameera, which was full and had no space for their tent.

“Later, they told us to seek a place near Salah al-Din Street, despite the danger. My daughters and I were crying and Abdallah was getting tense and started making weird sounds. The scorching heat is too much and we don’t know where to go,” she said.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, the army has issued several forced evacuation orders for Palestinians living in the besieged enclave, often telling them to move to the southern al-Mawasi area, which has been designated a so-called “safe zone”.

However, al-Mawasi has also come under repeated attack by Israel, as has the exodus of Palestinians fleeing Gaza City to an unknown fate further south.

For Abdallah, the never-ending orders and sounds of bombardments mean he spends most of the time roaming the streets and has developed a new habit of pulling his hair. His family cut his hair short to stop him tearing at it.

“I began giving him prescribed sleeping pills again, to stop him from going outside during the heat. There is nothing else I can do to help him. I discovered that my mobile phone was broken two days before we were displaced; my phone was the only means to keep him calm with mobile games and videos,” Hassan explained.

“We were all under immense pressure … young and old. At one point, I asked God to take our lives together so Abdallah wouldn’t be alone. Not everything he needs is available here,” she pleaded.

In the nearly two years of intense attacks, Israeli raids have killed at least 66,005 people and wounded 168,162, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported on Sunday.

Italian race organiser says there is high possibility of race disruption due to participation of Israeli team.

The Israel-Premier Tech cycling team has been excluded from Italy’s upcoming Giro dell’Emilia competition due to concerns over public safety, race organisers said.

The decision announced on Saturday comes after the recent Vuelta a Espana cycling race suffered several disruptions by pro-Palestinian protesters who took to the streets of the Spanish capital, Madrid, to block the participation of Israel-Premier Tech, forcing the cancellation of the race’s final stage.

Calls for Israel to be excluded from global sporting events, festivals and music competitions have been growing since the country’s invasion of Gaza, which has killed almost 66,000 Palestinians, in an operation the United Nations has described as a “genocide”.

“It is with regret that, following recent events and given the characteristics of the final circuit, for the safety of all athletes, technical staff, and spectators, I have had to forgo the participation of the Team this year,” said Adriano Amici, organiser of the one-day Giro dell’Emilia, which will take place on October 4, finishing in Bologna.

“We had to make this decision for reasons of public security,” Amici told the Reuters news agency.

“There’s too much danger for both the Israel Tech riders and others. The race’s final circuit is run five times so the possibility of the race being disrupted is very high,” he said.

Police in the Italian city of Milan clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday, during a nationwide strike in Italy called by trade unions to protest against Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The Giro dell’Emilia race concludes with a climb to the Madonna di San Luca sanctuary, not far from the historic centre of Bologna, which has a large student population and a long history of left-wing politics.

Bologna’s local government, which is controlled by the centre-left Democratic Party, called for Israel-Premier Tech’s exclusion from the race, noting the Israeli government’s guilt in carrying out “serious crimes against the civilian population in the Gaza Strip”.

Roberta Li Calzi, the city’s sport councillor, welcomed the decision to exclude the Israeli team, which is owned by Israeli-Canadian property developer Sylvan Adams.

Adams, the president of the Israel region of the World Jewish Congress, is referred to by that organisation as “committed to promoting Israel’s global image”.

“Given what is happening in Gaza it would have been hypocritical to consider the presence of a team linked to this [Israeli] government as insignificant,” Calzi said in a statement.

Pressure is mounting on Israel on all fronts over its brutal war and continued ignoring of international calls to end the slaughter of Palestinians.

European football’s governing body, UEFA, is expected to soon vote on whether to suspend Israel’s football team, whose men’s side is in the middle of attempting to qualify for next year’s World Cup, from all competitions under its jurisdiction. The 20-member UEFA ruling committee is expected to secure a majority to exclude Israel from games if that vote is called.

Members of the Eurovision Song Contest are also due to vote on excluding Israel from the 2026 competition due to its military onslaught in Gaza.

Putrajaya, Malaysia – When Malaysia’s former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad turned 100 earlier this year, he marked his birthday by following a lifelong routine of discipline: he ate little, worked a lot, and did not succumb to the lure of rest.

“The main thing is that I work all the time. I don’t rest myself,” Mahathir told Al Jazeera.

“I am always using my mind and body. Keep your mind and body active, then you live longer,” he said.

From a desk at his office in Putrajaya city, south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, he spent his centenary like most days: penning his thoughts on the Malaysian economy, the country’s political situation and unfolding world events, particularly the situation in Gaza.

Sitting down with Al Jazeera for an interview after recovering from a spell of exhaustion around the time of his birthday, Mahathir predicted that Israel’s ruthlessness against the Palestinian population of Gaza would be etched into world history.

Israel’s killing of nearly 66,000 Palestinians in Gaza, the majority women and children, will be remembered for generations, possibly for “centuries”, Mahathir said.

“Gaza is terrible. They killed pregnant mothers… babies just born, young people, boys and girls, men and women, the sick and the poor… How can this be forgotten?” he asked.

“It will not be forgotten for maybe centuries,” Mahathir said.

Describing the war in Gaza as a genocide that parallelled the killing of Muslims during the war in Bosnia in the early 1990s and the Jews by Nazi Germany during World War II, Mahathir said he was confounded that the people of Israel, who had experienced genocide, could, in turn, perpetrate a genocide.

“I thought people who suffered like that would not want to visit it on other people,” he said. Victims of a genocide should “not want to wish their fate to befall other people”.

However, in the case of Israel, he was wrong, he said.

At the height of his power in the 1980s and 1990s, Mahathir earned a reputation on the world stage as an outspoken voice for the Global South, and a vocal critic of Western imperialism and its contemporary exploitation of developing countries through flows of financial capital.

A staunch and lifelong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Mahathir was also roundly criticised for making “anti-Semitic” statements alongside his tirades against the West, particularly the United States.

But, as he told Al Jazeera, he had sympathised deeply with the Jewish people when the horrors of the Nazis became known after World War II.

Israelis, he now says, “did not learn anything from their experience”.

“They want the same thing that happened to them, they want to do it to the Arabs,” he said.

Now, the only “reasonable” way to address the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people is to implement a two-state solution, he added. But Mahathir said that such a solution – which received a major boost when Palestinian statehood was recently recognised by Australia, Belgium, Canada, France and the United Kingdom, among other countries – is still a very long way off, and he would not live to see it.

“In my lifetime, no. Too short a time,” he said.

China: ‘Number one country in the world’

A survivor of three heart attacks who pulled off a stunning political comeback in Malaysian public life when he was over 90 years of age, Mahathir held power for a combined total of 24 years, and earned himself what is likely to be the unassailable title as Malaysia’s longest-serving leader.

When he was born on July 10, 1925, in the northern Malaysian state of Kedah, the king of England was George V, the grandfather of the late Queen Elizabeth II, and Malaysia was a British colony known as Malaya.

He entered politics in the 1960s and became prime minister from 1981 to 2003 before stepping down, for the first time.

He then made an astonishing return to power in 2018, when he led a coalition of opposition parties to beat the long-governing Barisan Nasional party to be re-elected prime minister at the sprightly age of 92, becoming the world’s oldest leader as a result.

But he stepped down under a cloud for the last time in 2020 after losing support due to political machinations from inside his own political party, Bersatu.

A medical doctor by training, even Mahathir’s critics acknowledged that he laid the economic foundations that transformed Malaysia’s agricultural economy of the 1960s into the modern industrialised state of today, with the iconic twin Petronas Towers crowning the skyline of its thriving modern capital city, Kuala Lumpur.

Despite having lived past the age when most politicians would have retreated from the spotlight, Mahathir at 100 remains as vocal, sharp and acerbic as ever.

He also had some surprising memories of a bygone China and predictions about the future of the United States to share.

Among his prized recollections are his impressions of visiting China in the 1970s, when it was “very poor” and there were few cars on the streets.

Being Malaysia’s deputy prime minister at the time, authorities in Beijing rolled out the red carpet and their “Red Flag” model car to chauffeur him around, he said.

“It was a very big Chinese car which China produced themselves. They called it The Red Flag,” Mahathir said, recounting how that vehicle was among the first to be independently produced by the Chinese.

Fast forward to today, China’s economy has come a very long way, and so too has its thriving car industry, which is giving Western-produced cars a run for their money, particularly with electric vehicles.

China’s surpassing of the US to become the “number one country in the world” is inevitable, he said, due to its huge domestic market and hard-working population.

“It will take China 10 years to catch up with America. After that, China will overtake America,” Mahathir said.

“China by itself is bigger than Europe and America. It’s a huge market. It is quite rich. And Chinese people are very smart in business,” he said, recounting how, as a youth, he witnessed new Chinese migrants to Malaysia take on “very heavy work” to earn a living. Within a generation or two, those families had managed to improve their lives, give their children a good education, and some of their grandchildren had gone on to become quite wealthy.

‘America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world’

Contrasting contemporary China with the US under the presidency of Donald Trump, Mahathir said that Trump’s “tariff war” was “very damaging”, and his plans to bring production back to the US would increase costs and pave the way for China’s further rise.

“[Trump] wants companies to shift their factories to America. The wages are very high there. The work attitude there will be very different from Chinese workers, who can stay for hours and do the work,” he said.

“American workers cannot do that. Anything produced in America in the future, if they do move the factories there, will be costly,” he added.

“America will not be able to compete with the rest of the world.”

Importantly, Trump does not have the time to follow through on his promised economic vision, as it would take a minimum of three to eight years to move manufacturing facilities to the US, he said.

“And Trump will not be president any more after three years,” he added.

Despite being 100 years old , Mahathir walks unaided, exercises daily, goes to work every day and receives visitors.

He uses social media and travels outside of Malaysia whenever he receives invitations to be a guest speaker.

The key to longevity, Mahathir said, is to stay physically and mentally active and not overeat .

“Don’t eat so much,” he told Al Jazeera.

“My mother’s best advice to me was, ‘When the food tastes nice, stop eating.’”

At least 91 Palestinian people were killed on Saturday in relentless Israeli attacks throughout the Gaza Strip, including at least 45 in Gaza City, as the military intensified its widely criticised ground invasion.

Gaza’s Government Media Office slammed Israel for misleading the Palestinian people with threats to evacuate to the central and southern governorates by portraying them as “safe humanitarian zones”, while continuing to strike those same areas.

According to a statement issued on Saturday, 1,903 people have been killed in 133 attacks on central and southern Gaza since the forced displacement from Gaza City began on August 11, some 46 percent of all reported deaths across the enclave during that period.

The office said that this shows civilians are being directly targeted, despite being told to move south, and called on the international community to intervene, warning that continued global inaction amounts to a “green light” for further massacres.

Reporting from central Gaza, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said that since the early hours of Saturday, Israeli attacks have increased in Gaza City and more casualties have been arriving at al-Shifa Hospital.

“Just in the past few minutes, we had confirmation of a family evacuating on a road inside a vehicle when it was struck by a drone missile. Four people were reported killed on the spot,” he said.

“Hundreds of others have been on the move as Israeli drones and fighter jets chase them from one place to another,” he added.

Hospitals attacked

Some hospitals in Gaza City have shut down as Israeli attacks escalate, with plans to seize the city and displace more people each day.

Earlier on Saturday, people in one of the city’s main hospitals, the Jordan Field Hospital, were forced to evacuate all 107 patients and their entire staff after facing heavy bombardment.

Hospitals in Gaza have long been on the brink of collapse amid relentless Israeli strikes. Most are operating in horrific conditions, unable to provide even basic medical supplies, such as anaesthesia and antibiotics, while the doctors, who are going hungry themselves, struggle to treat starving patients.

The few hospitals still partially functioning in central Gaza have become overwhelmed with wounded and sick people fleeing bombardment in the north. Many arrive in need of urgent medical care that cannot be provided.

“Displacement has worsened the situation inside hospitals in the south,” a displaced Palestinian told Al Jazeera. “Now you can see that instead of one patient in one bed, medical staff tried to fit two patients in one bed.”

Dr Khalil Digran, who works at Al-Aqsa Hospital, said that Israeli forces deliberately attacked al-Rantisi Paediatric Hospital in Gaza City, the Strip’s only specialised medical facility for children.

“Gaza City and the north are left with just two health facilities that are barely functioning: al-Shifa and al-Ahli Hospital,” Digran told Al Jazeera.

“As for the remaining health facilities in central and southern Gaza, Israeli actions are already adding more pressure on these facilities and threatening to bring their service to a total halt.”

Mohammad Khoudary, a displaced Palestinian, told Al Jazeera: “Ever since we became displaced, my father has been impacted and has become very sad.

“This has affected his health; he has become dehydrated. I am hoping they will be able to transfer him to Al-Aqsa Hospital.”

Hamas says has not seen ceasefire plan

Meanwhile, on the global stage, protests calling for a ceasefire took place Saturday in Berlin, Germany, Liverpool in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere.

Hamas has said that it has not received United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan, even as Trump this week repeatedly expressed optimism that a deal is close.

In comments to reporters on Friday, Trump said, “It’s looking like we have a deal on Gaza.” He offered no details and gave no timetable. Israel has not yet made any public response to Trump’s comments.

A Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said the Palestinian group “has not been presented with any plan”.

Trump is due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, whose hard-right governing coalition is opposed to ending the Gaza war until Hamas is destroyed.

Sept. 27 (UPI) — The Israeli Air Force targeted more than 120 sites in the Gaza Strip to destroy Hamas infrastructure, while the Israel Defense Forces continued its ground offensive in Gaza City.

The IAF on Friday and Saturday struck buildings and other infrastructure that Hamas uses to continue the war against Israel that Hamas started by attacking Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

The aerial strikes occurred as the IDF’s 98th Division killed several Hamas militants and located rockets and rocket-propelled grenades in Gaza City, according to The Times of Israel.

The IDF force used drones to attack a Hamas surveillance post in Gaza City that the Hamas-allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad also used to stage its operations in Gaza City, while the IDF’s 36th and 162nd divisions also destroyed Hamas tunnels and killed several Hamas and Islamic Jihad members over the past day, the Times reported.

The attacks killed at least 91 Palestinians, at least 45 of whom were in Gaza City, Al Jazeera reported.

The news outlet did not cite a source or say how many of the reported deaths are Hamas and Islamic Jihad members and how many might be civilians.

The Israeli military’s offensive in Gaza City caused the non-profit charity Doctors Without Borders to close in the northern Gaza municipality.

“We have been left with no choice but to stop our activities as our clinics are encircled by Israeli forces,” said Jacob Granger, the DWB’s emergency medical coordinator in Gaza, as reported by The New York Times.

“This is the last thing we wanted,” Granger said. “The needs in Gaza City are enormous.”

Granger said the medical organization treated more than 1,600 Gazans for malnutrition and conducted more than 3,600 medical consultations for more than 3,600 patients.

The Israeli offensive has caused many of its citizens to question Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s effort to free the remaining hostages and end the war, The Times of Israel reported.

Former hostage Doron Steinbrecher is among Israelis who question the Israeli government’s efforts to recover all hostages, including those who are deceased.

“I don’t know if I still believe that everything is being done,” Steinbrecher told a group of protesters on Saturday at Hostage Square in Tel Aviv.

“I have no choice but to believe they’ll come back,” Steinbrecher continued. “We have no choice, and neither do they.”

She urged the Israeli government to seize any opportunity to secure a cease-fire and the release of all hostages.

President Donald Trump earlier this week estimated Hamas continues holding up to 58 hostages in Gaza, but he said only 20 are believed to still be alive.

Sept. 26 (UPI) — Microsoft has ended a portion of the Israel Ministry of Defense’s access to technology it used to spy on Palestinian civilians’ phone calls in Gaza and the West Bank, calling it a violation of Microsoft’s terms of service.

Late last week, Microsoft told Israeli officials that spy agency Unit 8200 were in violation of Microsoft’s terms of service by storing surveillance data in Azure, a cloud service, The Guardian reported.

Microsoft released a statement that it wrote to employees Thursday about its internal investigation after an article The Guardian published in August that revealed what the Ministry of Defense was using Azure for.

“While our review is ongoing, we have found evidence that supports elements of The Guardian’s reporting. This evidence includes information relating to IMOD consumption of Azure storage capacity in the Netherlands and the use of AI services,” Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, said in the statement.

The Guardian conducted a joint investigation with +972 Magazine and the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. The Guardian wrote that Microsoft and Unit 8200 had worked together on a plan to move large volumes of sensitive intelligence material into Azure.

According to The Guardian’s reporting, Unit 8200 built such a large database, it could collect, play back and analyze the cell phone calls of the entire population. So much so that a mantra emerged: “A million calls an hour.”

The information was stored in a Microsoft data center in the Netherlands, but soon after The Guardian’s reporting, the data appears to have been moved out of the country. The Guardian reports that sources said the Israel Defense Forces planned to move the data to an Amazon Web Services cloud.

“We therefore have informed IMOD of Microsoft’s decision to cease and disable specified IMOD subscriptions and their services, including their use of specific cloud storage and AI services and technologies,” Smith said. “We have reviewed this decision with IMOD and the steps we are taking to ensure compliance with our terms of service, focused on ensuring our services are not used for mass surveillance of civilians.”

Microsoft has faced strong pressure to disengage with Israel, including from its employees. In late August, two Microsoft employees were fired for allegedly breaking into Smith’s office.

An online group called No Azure for Apartheid announced on X that Microsoft fired them for “participating in a sit-in at the office of Brad Smith” at the Microsoft location in Redmond, Wash., to demand the company cut its ties to Israel.

Seven people were arrested that day, two of whom were Microsoft employees.

“It’s either displacement or death in Gaza City or it’s displacement and death in al-Mawasi.”

President Trump rejecting the annexation of the occupied West Bank is a “very important moment”, says director of Mediation Group International, Martin Griffiths.

Israel falsely claimed a Hamas camera was the target of a deadly strike that killed 22 people, including journalists.

Israel’s justification for bombing a Khan Younis hospital in southern Gaza, claiming it targeted a Hamas camera, is false, according to an investigation by the news agency Reuters.

Israeli forces planned the August 25 attack on Nasser Hospital using drone footage that, a military official said, showed a Hamas camera that was the target of the strike. But a Reuters review of visual evidence and interviews with witnesses established that the camera in question actually belonged to the news agency and had long been used by one of its own journalists.

The “double-tap” attack killed 22 people, including five journalists – one of whom worked for Al Jazeera. Their deaths bring the number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza to more than 200 since the genocidal war began nearly two years ago.

A day after the hospital strike, the army said troops had fired on a “suspicious” camera draped in cloth, claiming it was operated by Hamas. Drone footage later showed the device on a hospital stairwell, covered with a prayer rug belonging to Reuters journalist Hussam al-Masri – who was killed in the strike – not Hamas, Reuters found.

At least 35 times since May, al-Masri had positioned his camera on the same stairwell to record live broadcasts distributed worldwide. He often used the rug to shield it from heat and dust.

“The claim that Hamas was filming Israeli forces from Nasser Hospital is false and fabricated,” said Ismail al-Thawabta, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office. “Israel is trying to cover up a full-fledged war crime against the hospital, its patients and medical staff.”

Reuters said it reviewed more than 100 videos and photos from the scene and interviewed more than two dozen people to reconstruct the events of the attack.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem described the stairwell as “a makeshift newsroom” where journalists had gathered before the strike. Al-Masri’s live broadcast froze moments before the blast, which killed him along with several civil defence workers. A second explosion struck as rescuers rushed in.

“We were rescuing the martyrs and wounded … then a huge explosion among us,” said Reuters cameraman Hatem Khaled.

Israel has repeatedly targeted hospitals and other sites protected under international humanitarian law, including schools, shelters, mosques and churches. Its attacks have also killed journalists, medical staff, first responders and humanitarian workers. Despite repeated global calls for investigations, Israel continues to act with impunity while carrying out genocide in Gaza.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has never published the results of a formal investigation nor held anyone accountable for the killings of journalists.

“None of these incidents prompted a meaningful review of Israel’s rules of engagement, nor did international condemnation lead to any change in the pattern of attacks on journalists over the past two years,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Family home hit in war-battered Gaza City, with children among the dead and wounded as Israeli bombardment continues.

Pressure is growing on football’s governing bodies to take action against Israel’s national football team over the war on Gaza.

Turkiye has become the first member of European football’s governing body, UEFA, to publicly call for Israel’s suspension from all football competitions, as pressure ramps up on the sport’s organising bodies to take action over the ongoing war on Gaza in advance of the World Cup 2026.

Turkish Football Federation President Ibrahim Haciosmanoglu on Friday sent a letter to international football leaders urging that “it is now time for FIFA and UEFA to act” – referring to the world and European football governing bodies.

“Despite positioning themselves as defenders of civic values and peace, the sporting world and football institutions have remained silent for far too long,” Haciosmanoglu said, according to Turkiye’s state-run Anadolu news agency.

“Guided by these values, we feel compelled to raise our deep concern regarding the unlawful (and more importantly, completely inhumane and unacceptable) situation being carried out by the State of Israel in Gaza and its surrounding areas,” he added.

UEFA is moving towards a vote on whether to suspend Israel, whose men’s football team is in the middle of attempting to qualify for next year’s World Cup, co-hosted by Mexico, the United States and Canada.

The 20-member UEFA ruling committee is expected to secure a majority to exclude Israel from games if a vote is called.

Unease has grown regarding the apparent double standard of Israel’s treatment and that of Russia, whose national team was banned by both UEFA and FIFA in 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Also on Friday, a coalition of 48 high-profile professional athletes called on UEFA to suspend Israel from all football competitions over its assault on Palestinians in Gaza.

France midfielder Paul Pogba and English cricketer Moeen Ali were among 48 signatories to a statement calling for Israel’s suspension, published under the banner of Athletes 4 Peace.

“As professional athletes of diverse backgrounds, faiths, and beliefs, we believe sport must uphold the principles of justice, fairness, and humanity,” read the statement.

“We, the signatories of Athletes 4 Peace, call upon UEFA to immediately suspend Israel from all competitions until it complies with international law and ends its killing of civilians and the widespread starvation,” the athletes added.

The statement also cited the death last month of Suleiman al-Obeid – known as the Palestinian Pele – who, according to the Palestine Football Association, was killed when Israeli forces attacked civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in southern Gaza.

Israel has been a full member of UEFA since 1994 after being expelled from the Asian Football Confederation two decades earlier in a vote initiated by Kuwait and backed by other Arab countries.

It has only qualified for one men’s World Cup – the 1970 competition held in Mexico – when it was knocked out in the group stage without winning a game.

On Thursday, the US Department of State said it would “absolutely work to fully stop any effort to attempt to ban Israel’s national football team” from next year’s World Cup.

Though UEFA is able to stop Israel from participating in games related to European competitions, it cannot stop Israel from competing in FIFA-run World Cup qualifiers.

The head of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, has warm relations with President Donald Trump – visiting the US leader at the White House in March – and so is seen as unlikely to back a move to suspend Israel.

Infantino will chair a meeting of FIFA’s ruling council next Thursday in the Swiss city of Zurich.

The UN on Friday warned of devastating consequences for civilians in the Gaza Strip as Israeli forces intensified their attacks via airstrikes on the besieged enclave at an alarming frequency, Anadolu reports

Citing the Office of the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said at a news conference that “Israeli forces have stepped up their operations over the past 24 hours, with devastating consequences for civilians. On average, this meant an airstrike every eight or nine minutes.”

He said the UN teams monitoring population movement “counted about 16,500 displaced people from Northern Gaza to the south” on Thursday alone.

Dujarric noted that aid workers remain positioned along displacement routes to provide support but warned of mounting challenges.

“Aid workers remain stationed along displacement routes, offering psychosocial first aid, referring people to specialized services when needed, and educating new arrivals on the danger of explosive ordinances,” he said.

Despite these efforts, hundreds of thousands of people remain in Gaza City amid widespread insecurity. They rely heavily on humanitarian assistance because more critical services have been forced to close or relocate, he said.

On Israel’s continued access restrictions, he reported that on Thursday, “out of 15 movements that we tried to coordinate with Israeli authorities to support people in different parts of Gaza, only seven were fully facilitated.”

Dujarric stressed that OCHA has urged Israel to “fully facilitate humanitarian operations, including unimpeded movements of aid into and across the Gaza Strip.”

Turning to the situation in the occupied West Bank, he said more than 3,000 Palestinians, half of them children, have been displaced by illegal Israeli settler attacks and Israeli access restrictions since October 2023.

Sept. 26 (UPI) — Dozens of U.N. delegates walked out of the General Assembly Hall on Friday as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened to “finish the job” in Gaza in his speech at U.N. Headquarters in New York City.

According to Axios, nearly all delegates from predominantly Arab and Muslim countries, as well as some from African and European countries, appeared to leave the hall as Netanyahu entered to give his address during the annual general debate. The outlet said the walkouts represented the vast majority of delegates in attendance.

Netanyahu is facing growing opposition among world leaders as the war in Gaza nears its two-year anniversary. On the sidelines of the U.N. general debate this week, several countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and France, formally announced their recognition of Palestine, showing their preference for a two-state solution to the war in Gaza.

Netanyahu has rejected the calls for a two-state solution, telling the leaders of these nations Friday that their recognition of Palestine tells Hamas that “murdering Jews pays off.”

“When the most savage terrorists on Earth are exclusively praising your decision, you didn’t do something right, you did something wrong, horribly wrong,” Netanyahu told those countries, apparently referring to Hamas.

“Your disgraceful decision will encourage terrorism against Jews and against innocent people everywhere. It will be a mark of shame on all of you.”

Netanyahu said Israel would carry on its war against Gaza, which was sparked by a Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Hamas took hundreds of hostages, some 50 of whom have yet to be returned.

“The final elements, the final remnants of Hamas, are holed up in Gaza City. They vow to repeat the atrocities of Oct. 7 again and again and again, no matter how diminished their forces,” Netanyahu said.

“That is why Israel must finish the job. That is why we want to do so as fast as possible.”

The prime minister said he had loudspeakers set up to broadcast his speech throughout Gaza. He said his government also took over cell phones in Gaza to also show his speech, but multiple Palestinians told CNN they never received any messages.

Recently, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that US support for “everything that the Israeli government is doing” limits the EU’s leverage to change the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip.

Subsequently, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, proposed sanctions to Israeli ministers and partial suspension of Israel trade deal. On Wednesday, the EU Commission’s review discovered – after 21 months of mass atrocities in Gaza and violent pogroms in the West Bank – that actions taken by the Israeli government in the Palestinian-occupied territories represent a ‘breach of essential elements relating to respect for human rights and democratic principles,’ which permits the EU to suspend the agreement unilaterally.

Recently, these sentiments were reinforced with the recognition of the state of Palestine by U.S. allies – the UK, Canada and Australia – and more recently by France. 

Observers of Brussels declared that the EU had become tough on genocide. In reality, it was a last-minute effort by the two EU leaders to fuse rising outrage against EU’s Gaza policies and charges they were complicit in Israel’s atrocities.

How Kallas emboldened Israel in Gaza

Addressing the annual EU Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) conference in Brussels, Kajas said that US backing of Israel undermines EU leverage to stop the “Gaza war.” Yet, the United States has supported Israel for more than half a century.

“We are struggling because 27 member states have different positions,” on the issue, Kallas explained. “Europe can only use full force when it acts together.” In this way, accessorial complicity is first deflected to Washington and then attributed to the absence of European unity, which Kallas has long called for, to confront Russia. In other words, the EU Gaza apology was a thinly-veiled effort for a plea to unity Kallas hoped to turn against Russia in Ukraine.

When asked about “double-standard” accusations towards the bloc on its Gaza policy, Kallas said it is not true that the EU is inactive on Gaza. Yet, previously she had opposed intervention in Gaza. In mid-July, Kallas and the foreign ministers of the EU member states chose not to take any action against Israel over alleged war crimes in the Gaza war and settler violence in the West Bank.

The then-proposed sanctions against Israel would have included suspending the EU-Israel Association Agreement, suspending visa-free travel, and blocking imports from Israeli settlements. This decision emboldened the Netanyahu cabinet, which saw the EU’s decision not to impose sanctions on Israel as a diplomatic victory. It also led UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese to conclude that EU officials like Kallas were complicit in Israeli war crimes in Gaza.

The EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner, accounting for a third of Israel’s total trade in goods with the world in 2024, whereas Israel is only the EU’s 31^st largest trading partner. Consequently, the EU could easily have sanctioned Israeli trade right after the first genocidal atrocities in late 2023, yet it chose not to. Why?

How von der Leyen undermined EU’s credibility

Von der Leyen has a track-record of intimate relations with Israel. It was a source of controversy already before the Gaza catastrophe. On the 75^th anniversary of Israel’s independence, half a year before October 7, 2023, she referred to Israel as a “vibrant democracy” in the Middle East that made “the desert bloom.” These remarks were criticized as racist by the foreign ministry of the Palestinian Authority because they erased the history of Palestinians in what is today Israel.

After the Hamas offensive, von der Leyen was criticized by EU lawmakers and diplomats for supporting Israel and not calling for a ceasefire. A week after October 7, she rushed to visit Israel to express solidarity, even as the Netanyahu cabinet spoke openly on the coming destruction of Gaza, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Then-EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell criticized her for the pro-Israeli stance which “had a high geopolitical cost for Europe.”

The visit and the rhetoric also sparked furor among 841 EU staff who signed a letter to von der Leyen criticizing her stance on the conflict. In their view, the commission was giving “a free hand to the acceleration and the legitimacy of a war crime in the Gaza Strip” and warned that the EU was “losing all credibility and the position as a fair, equitable and humanist broker.”

In reality, that credibility has eroded for years. By the early 2020s, more than 800 European financial institutions, including Europe’s most luminous financial giants, had financial relationships with over 50 businesses that were actively involved with Israeli settlements.

Why the belated moral outrage

Recently, the European Commission presented a proposal for tougher measures against Israel to the European Union, which featured suspending parts of the EU-Israel trade agreement and sanctioning Israeli far-right ministers and some West Bank settlers, along with Hamas leadership. These measures are very much in line with the EC chief’s previous warning. But why do they come only now – after 21 months of genocidal atrocities, the obliteration of Gaza and a quarter of a million killed or injured Palestinians?

A qualified majority vote among EU governments will still be required to pass the measures, with the support of at least 15 of the 27 EU members representing two-thirds of the EU population.

Moreover, von der Leyden’s Gaza criticism was carefully calculated to limit the scope of possible sanctions. “Man-made famine can never be a weapon of war,” she said. “For the sake of the children, for the sake of humanity – this must stop.”

Yet, Israel’s weaponized famines did not start few weeks ago. They date from the 2006 Palestine democratic election, which was won by Hamas in both Gaza and the West Bank. It led to Israel’s blockade, which was supported by the U.S. and the EU, and the Israeli-manufactured famine, designed to starve Gaza. The blockade paved the way to almost two decades of impoverishment, hunger, unemployment and thus to October 7, 2023. But it did not trigger condemnations by von der Leyden or the then-EU leaders.

Worse, the world witnessed the first starving victims in Gaza already in spring 2024. Yet, neither von Der Leyden nor other European leaders demanded the end to Israel’s actions at the time. And by the turn of 2023/24, still another famine way ensued, with similar silence in Brussels. It was only the third wave of famine in mid-2025 that changed their views. But why?

“What is happening in Gaza,” von der Leyden said, “has shaken the conscience of the world… These images are simply catastrophic.” That was the difference: not the realities of weaponized famines, which the world had witnessed for almost two decades in Gaza, but the images.

As those photos of starved bodies, particularly of children and babies, could no longer be halted or sidelined in international media, EU politicians, pushed by their constituencies, were compelled to act.

What European leaders chose not to do

It was when the European leaders were charged for accessorial complicity that von der Leyden and Kallas reacted. What the former proposed was “a package of measures” against Israel over its ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza. Or as she put it – and let’s italicize the key terms – “We will propose sanctions on the extremist ministers and on violent settlers. And we will also propose a partial suspension of the Association Agreement on trade-related matters.”

The EU would not use its full arsenal to change Israel’s conduct. It would only go after a few ministers of the Netanyahu cabinet, but not the cabinet itself, even though most of its members had been complicit to the Gaza catastrophe with some supporting even harsher measures, including “nuking” Gaza.

Similarly, the EU would only go after a few token settlers, not the illegal settlements that now house up to 750,000 Jewish settlers. Nor would the EU go after hardline Israeli politicians and civil administrators who have been preparing the incorporation of the West Bank into the pre-1967 Israel since their electoral triumph in late 2022.

The ties between Israel and the United States have expanded from hedging and strategic partnership into a virtual symbiosis. Since 1950, Israel has received more than $120 billion in U.S. aid, most of it in military aid; after October 7, this aid has soared up to $23 billion. But Washington is not Israel’s only ally. In the past half a decade, only three countries—the US (66% of Israel’s total arms imports), Germany (33%) and Italy (1%) —have supplied most of Israel’s arms.

Several other European countries have supplied vital military components, ammunition and services, including the UK, France and Spain. Meanwhile, small EU members like the tiny Finland are increasingly reliant on Israeli arms imports.

The elevated arms transfers reflect the contested European shift toward rearmament, at the expense of welfare and social services – despite the soaring challenges of aging demographics and climate change.

Genocide investigation against von der Leyen

Both Washington and Brussels are complicit to mass atrocities, due to their arms exports to Israel and financing through military aid, not to mention diplomatic and intelligence support. Article 3 of the Genocide Convention defines the crimes that can be punished under the convention, and these crimes include complicity.

In May 2024, the Geneva International Peace Research Institute (GIPRI), an NGO with UN consultative status, requested an investigation against the EC president, Ursula von der Leyen, for complicity in war crimes and genocide against Palestinian civilians. Her complicity was attributed to “violations of Articles 6, 7 and 8 of the Rome Statute by her positive actions (military, political, diplomatic support to Israel) and by her failure to take timely action on behalf of the European Commission to help prevent genocide as required by the 1948 Genocide Convention.”

According to Professor William Schabas, perhaps the leading scholar of genocide, ”von der Leyen is clearly reflecting a position taken by many EU-governments, which is one of very unconditional support of Israel, and they’re doing this flying in the face of public information suggesting that Israel is committing terrible crimes in Gaza and the West Bank.”

The issue with too many European leaders is no longer only the crime of complicity, but also the concerted effort to deny that Israel’s crimes and atrocities against Palestinians constitute genocide. Such denials should be seen as a form of “incitement” to hatred and violence, condemned by the Genocide Convention.

Legal efforts to go after genocide complicity entered a new stage recently, when a group of lawyers filed a criminal complaint against German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, key government officials and arms trade executives on Friday. A dozen high-ranking officials of the former and current German government and CEOs of arms manufacturers were accused of aiding and abetting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, by the European Legal Support Center (ELSC). “Given the undeniable, genocidal consequences of this support, we seek to hold them accountable,” said Nadija Samour, ELSC’s senior legal officer.

Recently, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez noted that “what we’re now witnessing in Gaza is perhaps one of the darkest episodes of international relations in the 21^st century.”

Tragically, the European leaders share full accessorial complicity in the decimation of Gaza and the genocide of its residents, plus the incorporation of the West Bank – that is, the massive moral collapse that is likely to cast a long, dark shadow over the 21^st century because what has happened in Gaza is likely to be replicated elsewhere, with even more lethal results.

Author’s note: Building on The Obliteration Doctrine, the original commentary was published by Antiwar.com on September 23, 2025.

New York City – Thousands of New Yorkers joined world diplomats in giving Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the cold shoulder as he spoke at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Protesters on Friday morning rallied against the Israeli prime minister on the streets of New York City as dozens of delegates marched out of the UN Assembly hall when he began his speech on the fourth day of the General Debate.

And blocks away, diplomats representing countries across the world were meeting as part of the Hague Group to discuss taking concrete measures against Israel, including sanctions, for its nearly two-year assault on Gaza.

Al-Sharif Nassef, who was participating in the New York protest, said it was a “shame” that Netanyahu was in the city instead of The Hague to answer to his alleged war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued an arrest warrant for him last year.

“All the New Yorkers who are here today support his arrest. He is not welcome here,” Nassef told Al Jazeera.

“And Inshallah [God willing], under the new mayorship, he will be arrested as soon as he steps forward in New York City.”

Earlier this month, New York Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamadani promised to enforce the ICC’s arrest warrant against Netanyahu. But the US is not a party to the tribunal, so it is not clear whether the New York Police Department has the legal power to detain the Israeli prime minister.

‘Is baby formula Hamas?’

After Netanyahu finished his speech, protesters marched from Times Square to a park near the UN complex on the East River.

They waved Palestinian flags and chanted “free Palestine” and “arms embargo now” as the demonstration snaked through the streets amid heavy police presence.

Some demonstrators also displayed the flags of Colombia and Ireland – two countries that have been vocal in their support for Palestinians.

Nasreen Issa, a member of the Palestine Youth Movement – NYC, which helped organise the march, said the large turnout sends a message that it is “unacceptable” for the US to roll out the red carpet for Netanyahu.

Issa said that demonstrations work even if their effects are not immediately felt.

“Protests play an important role in generating the political will that can make real change happen,” the activist told Al Jazeera.

Meagan Fredette held a cardboard sign that said, “Is baby formula Hamas???” to highlight the Israeli restrictions on basic food items in Gaza, which have plunged the territory into deadly famine, according to a UN-backed monitor.

Fredette said she feels “disgusted” as a New Yorker that Netanyahu is in her city.

“I feel angry. It’s embarrassing that he’s here. He doesn’t deserve to be here,” she told Al Jazeera. “He’s a literal, wanted criminal. New Yorkers were not happy that he’s here.”

As the demonstrators arrived outside the security perimeter at the UN, they encountered about a dozen counterprotesters waving Israeli flags.

But law enforcement officers separated the two sets of protesters and confined the small pro-Israel rally to a barricaded area.

When a man with an Israeli flag started shouting obscenities at the anti-Netanyahu demonstrators, the police quickly intervened and ordered him to move away from the protest.

Broadcasting Netanyahu’s speech through Palestinian phones

Inside the UN General Assembly hall earlier, Netanyahu addressed a room that was partly emptied by the walkout, and he received applause that came only from one area on the upper level of the room.

Asked whether the people clapping for Netanyahu were guests of the Israeli mission, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, only said, “Every delegation is allowed to bring in guests.”

Netanyahu’s office said on X that the prime minister had ordered the hacking of the phones of Palestinians in Gaza to stream his speech on the devices.

“In an unprecedented action, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu … has announced that the [Israeli military] took control of the telephones of Gaza residents and Hamas members, and that his speech is now being broadcast live via the telephones,” the post said.

His office also posted on social media that the Israeli military broadcast the address on a loudspeaker to the starving and beleaguered population of the territory.

Al Jazeera asked Dujarric for a reaction to a UN function being used as a tool to taunt an entire population, but he declined to respond.

“I have no specific comment on that,” the spokesperson said.

“I think the focus should be on alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people, getting more humanitarian aid in, and getting the hostages out,” Dujarric added.

Israel has killed more than 65,500 people in Gaza, including approximately 20,000 children, and turned nearly the entire territory into rubble.

The UNGA is meeting this year amid growing international anger at Israel’s conduct. Several Western countries that are traditionally allied with Israel recognised the state of Palestine during the assembly.

Hague group meeting

On Friday, diplomats from 24 countries – part of the Hague Group, which aims to halt the war on Gaza – called for action to stop the atrocities beyond statements and symbolism.

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, urged tangible moves against Israel, including sanctions.

“We are out of time because if we fail to act, children are killed,” Mansour told a Hague Group meeting.

“Palestinian children are killed, starved, orphaned, burned and traumatised, families are shattered, life is destroyed, lands are stolen and territories are annexed.”

Mansour also called for international support for South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice.

The meeting included representatives from Colombia, South Africa, Qatar, Turkiye, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Ireland, Spain and Uruguay.

Israel’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira warned against failing to stop Israeli atrocities.

“International law requires states not only to refrain from committing genocide, but also to prevent it. Failure to do so may give rise to state responsibility, including for complicity in genocide,” he said.

“Time has come for States to fulfil their obligations under the Genocide Convention by adopting effective measures to ensure that they do not, directly or indirectly, collaborate with its perpetrators.”