Israeli forces have carried out air strikes on the areas of Mahmoudiyeh and Jarmak, in southern Lebanon. The strikes are the latest in near-daily Israeli violations of the US-brokered ceasefire involving Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah that began in November.
Published On 30 Oct 202530 Oct 2025
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Here are the details on the teams, groups, format, match fixtures, kickoff times and venues for FIFA U-17 World Cup 2025:
⚽ Group A: Qatar, Italy, South Africa, Bolivia
⚽ Group B: Japan, Morocco, New Caledonia, Portugal
⚽ Group C: Senegal, Croatia, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates
⚽ Group D: Argentina, Belgium, Tunisia, Fiji
⚽ Group E: England, Venezuela, Haiti, Egypt
⚽ Group F: Mexico, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Switzerland
⚽ Group G: Germany, Colombia, North Korea, El Salvador
⚽ Group H: Brazil, Honduras, Indonesia, Zambia
⚽ Group I: USA, Burkina Faso, Tajikistan, Czechia
⚽ Group J: Paraguay, Uzbekistan, Panama, Ireland
⚽ Group K: France, Chile, Canada, Uganda
⚽ Group L: Mali, New Zealand, Austria, Saudi Arabia
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The top two nations in each group automatically qualify for the knockout rounds, while the eight best third-place teams will also proceed further.
Winners of the last-32 advance to the round of 16, followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and the final.
In knockout fixtures, if a game is level at the end of normal playing time, no extra time shall be played, with a penalty shootout determining the winner.
3 November
Group A: South Africa vs Bolivia (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group C: Costa Rica vs United Arab Emirates (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group C: Senegal vs Croatia (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Group B: Japan vs Morocco (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group D: Argentina vs Belgium (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group B: New Caledonia vs Portugal (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group A: Qatar vs Italy (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group D: Tunisia vs Fiji (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
4 November
Group F: Ivory Coast vs Switzerland (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group H: Brazil vs Honduras (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm /12:0 GMT)
Group F: Mexico vs South Korea (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Group E: Haiti vs Egypt (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group G: Germany vs Colombia (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group E: England vs Venezuela (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group G: North Korea vs El Salvador (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group H: Indonesia vs Zambia (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
5 November
Group I: Tajikistan vs Czechia (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group J: Panama vs Ireland (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group J: Paraguay vs Uzbekistan (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00pm/13:00 GMT)
Group L: Austria vs Saudi Arabia (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group L: Mali vs New Zealand (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group I: USA vs Burkina Faso (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group K: France vs Chile (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group K: Canada vs Uganda (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
6 November
Group A: Bolivia vs Italy (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group B: Portugal vs Morocco (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group B: Japan vs New Caledonia (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Group D: Argentina vs Tunisia (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group D: Fiji vs Belgium (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group C: United Arab Emirates vs Croatia (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group A: Qatar vs South Africa (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group C: Senegal vs Costa Rica (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
7 November
Group E: England vs Haiti (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group G: El Salvador vs Colombia (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group G: Germany vs North Korea (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Group E: Egypt vs Venezuela (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group F: Mexico vs Ivory Coast (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group F: Switzerland vs South Korea (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group H: Brazil vs Indonesia (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group H: Zambia vs Honduras (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
8 November
Group I: Czechia vs Burkina Faso (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group K: Uganda vs Chile (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group L: Mali vs Austria (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Group K: France vs Canada (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group I: USA vs Tajikistan (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group J: Paraguay vs Panama (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Group J: Ireland vs Uzbekistan (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group L: Saudi Arabia vs New Zealand (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
9 November
Group D: Fiji vs Argentina (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group D: Belgium vs Tunisia (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group B: Portugal vs Japan (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group B: Morocco vs New Caledonia (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group C: United Arab Emirates vs Senegal (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group C: Croatia vs Costa Rica (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group A: Bolivia vs Qatar (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group A: Italy vs South Africa (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
10 November
Group F: Switzerland vs Mexico (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group F: South Korea vs Ivory Coast (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group G: El Salvador vs Germany (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group G: Colombia vs North Korea (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group H: Zambia vs Brazil (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group H: Honduras vs Indonesia (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group E: Egypt vs England (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group E: Venezuela vs Haiti (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
11 November
Group K: Uganda vs France (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group K: Chile vs Canada (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Group J: Ireland vs Paraguay (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group J: Uzbekistan vs Panama (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Group I: Czechia vs USA (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group I: Burkina Faso vs Tajikistan (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Group L: Saudi Arabia vs Mali (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Group L: New Zealand vs Austria (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Rest days on 12 and 13 November
14 November
Match 1 (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 2 (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 3 (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Match 4 (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Match 5 (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Match 6 (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Match 7 (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Match 8 (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
15 November
Match 9 (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 10 (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 11 (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Match 12 (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Match 13 (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Match 14 (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Match 15 (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Match 16 (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Rest days on 16 and 17 November
18 November
Match 1 (Aspire Zone, pitch 8, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 2 (Aspire Zone, pitch 3, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Match 3 (Aspire Zone, pitch 1, 4:00 pm/13:00 GMT)
Match 4 (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Match 5 (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Match 6 (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 6:15 pm/15:15 GMT)
Match 7 (Aspire Zone, pitch 9, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Match 8 (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Rest days on 19 and 20 November
21 November
Quarterfinal 1 (Aspire Zone, pitch 4, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Quarterfinal 2 (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 4:30 pm/13:30 GMT)
Quarterfinal 3 (Aspire Zone, pitch 2, 5:45 pm/14:45 GMT)
Quarterfinal 4 (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Rest days on 22 and 23 November
24 November
Semifinal 1 (Aspire Zone, pitch 5, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
Semifinal 2 (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 6:45 pm/15:45 GMT)
Rest days on 25 and 26 November
27 November (Aspire Zone, pitch 7, 3:30 pm/12:30 GMT)
27 November
Final (Khalifa International Stadium, Doha, 9pm/18:00 GMT)
Ben Rhodes, a former United States deputy national security adviser under President Barack Obama, famously called Washington’s foreign policy establishment “the Blob” to describe its entrenched ecosystem of think tanks, former officials, journalists and funders that perpetuate a narrow vision of power, global order and legitimate actors. This apparatus not only sustains conservative inertia but also defines the limits of what is considered possible in policy. In Sudan’s two-and-a-half-year conflict, these self-imposed boundaries are proving fatal.
A particularly insidious practice within the Blob is the invocation of moral and rhetorical equivalence, portraying the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) as comparable adversaries. This ostensibly balanced US stance, evident in establishment analyses and diplomatic statements, represents not an impartial default but a deliberate political construct. By equating a criminalised, externally backed militia with a national army tasked with state duties, it sanitises RSF atrocities, recasting them as mere wartime exigencies rather than orchestrated campaigns of ethnic cleansing, urban sieges and terror.
Reports from Human Rights Watch on ethnic cleansing in West Darfur, civilian killings, rape and unlawful detentions in Gezira and Khartoum and United Nations fact-finding missions confirm the RSF’s deliberate targeting of civilians. Furthermore, a report by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) monitor from late 2024 attributed roughly 77 percent of violent incidents against civilians to the RSF, underscoring this asymmetry, yet the Blob’s discourse frequently obscures it.
This notion has dominated US and international discourse on Sudan’s war since its outbreak when the then-US ambassador to Khartoum, John Godfrey, tweeted in the first month of the war a condemnation of RSF sexual violence but vaguely attributed it to unspecified “armed actors”. By refraining from explicitly identifying the perpetrators despite extensive documentation of the RSF’s responsibility for systematic rapes, gang rapes and sexual slavery, his wording essentially dispersed accountability across the warring parties and contributed to a climate of institutional impunity. RSF militiamen carry out their atrocities with confidence, knowing that responsibility will be blurred and its burden scattered across the parties.
What drives this equivalence? The Blob’s institutions often prioritise access over veracity. Framing the conflict symmetrically safeguards diplomatic ties with regional allies, particularly the RSF’s patrons in the United Arab Emirates while projecting an aura of neutrality. However, neutrality amid asymmetric criminality is not objectivity; it is tacit complicity. Elevating an internationally enabled militia to parity with a sovereign military confers undue legitimacy on the RSF, whose methods – including the besieging and starving of cities such as el-Fasher, the systematic use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war, the deployment of drones against mosques and markets, and acts of genocide – are demonstrably systematic, as corroborated by investigative journalism and human rights documentation. To subsume these under “actions by both parties” distorts empirical reality and erodes mechanisms for accountability.
Compounding this is the Blob’s uncritical assimilation of RSF propaganda into its interpretive frameworks. The RSF has strategically positioned itself as a vanguard against “Islamists”, a veneer that conceals its historical criminal nature, patronage networks, illicit resource extraction and foreign sponsorship.
In a similar vein, the RSF has publicly expressed sympathy and strong support for Israel, even offering to resettle displaced Palestinians from Gaza in a bid to align with US interests. This discourse serves as an overture to the Blob, leveraging shared geopolitical priorities to portray the RSF as a pragmatic partner in regional stability.
Certain establishment pundits and diplomats have echoed this narrative, casting the RSF as a viable bulwark against an “Islamist resurgence”, thereby endowing a force implicated in war crimes with strategic and ethical credibility. When the Blob internalises this “anti-Islamist” trope as analytical shorthand, it legitimises an insurgent militia’s rationalisations as geopolitical truths, marginalising the reality of the war and the Sudanese who repudiate militarised binaries and sectarian lenses.
Contrast this with the recurrent accusations of external backing for the SAF from an ideologically disparate coalition, including Egypt, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Iran. These claims, often amplified in mainstream media narratives and aligning with RSF discourse, expose profound inconsistencies: Egypt’s secular anti-Islamist state, Turkiye’s Islamist-leaning government, Saudi Arabia’s Sunni Wahhabi monarchy and Iran’s Shia theocracy embody clashing regional rivalries, evident in proxy wars from Yemen to Libya, rendering their purported unified support for the SAF implausible unless opportunistic pragmatism overrides ideology.
Moreover, the evidentiary threshold falls short of the robust, independent documentation implicating the UAE in RSF operations, relying instead on partisan assertions and circumstantial reports that appear designed to muddy asymmetries. Critically, any verified SAF assistance typically involves conventional arms transactions with Sudan’s internationally recognised government in Port Sudan, a sovereign authority, as opposed to the unchecked provisioning extended to the RSF, a nonstate actor formally designated by the US as genocidal. This fundamental distinction highlights the Blob’s contrived equivalence, conflating legitimate state-to-state engagements with the illicit empowerment of atrocity perpetrators.
Even more corrosive is the Blob’s propensity to credential “pseudo-civilian” entities aligned with the RSF and its external sponsors, particularly those bolstered by UAE influence, such as Somoud, led by former Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who also chairs the Emirati business-promotion organisation, the Centre for Africa’s Development and Investment (CADI). These networks are often presented in Blob forums as “civilian stakeholders” or “pragmatic moderates”, sidelining authentic grassroots entities inside Sudan.
This curation of externally amenable proxies transforms mediation into theatre, channelling international validation towards RSF-aligned gains and ignoring Sudanese agency rather than supporting any real civic architects of Sudan’s democratic aspirations. Documented UAE-RSF logistical and political linkages alongside Gulf-orchestrated narrative amplification should serve as a warning against endorsing such fabricated authority.
These lapses are not merely intellectual; they yield tangible harms. Legitimising the RSF through equivalence or narrative cooption dilutes legal and political tools for redress, confining policy options to performative ceasefires and superficial stability blueprints that preserve war economies and armament flows. It defers genuine deterrence, such as targeted interdictions, robust arms embargoes and the exposure of enablers until atrocities become irreversible.
The repercussions do not end there. They deepen, fuelling the militia’s authoritarian ambitions in alliance with its civilian partners. Drawing on this contrived equivalence, they have recently declared Ta’asis, parallel governing structures in western Sudan, claiming a layer of legitimacy while, at least rhetorically, brandishing the threat of partition despite the clear international consensus against recognising such authority.
To counter the Blob’s pathologies, a paradigm shift is imperative. Analysts and policymakers must abjure false symmetry, distinguishing symmetric warfare from asymmetric atrocity campaigns. Where evidence is found of systematic rights abuses, international rhetoric and actions should reflect this imbalance through targeted sanctions and disruptions while avoiding generic “both-sides” statements.
They must also repudiate RSF narratives. The “anti-Islamist” rhetoric is partisan sloganeering, not objective analysis. US engagement should centre on civilian protection, privileging authentic civil society testimonies over manufactured proxies. The question of who governs Sudan is, first and foremost, the prerogative of the Sudanese people themselves, who in April 2019 demonstrated their sovereign agency by toppling Omar al-Bashir’s Islamist regime without soliciting or relying on external assistance.
Equally important is to withhold recognition from contrived civilians. Mediation roles should hinge on verifiable grassroots mandates. Entities tethered to foreign patrons or militias merit no elevation as Sudan’s representatives.
Finally, policymakers must dismantle enablers. Rhetorical and legal measures must be matched by enforcement through transparent embargo oversight, flight interdictions and sanctions on supply chains. Justice without implementation offers only solace to victims.
Should the Blob prove intransigent, alternative forces must intervene. Sudanese civic coalitions, diaspora advocates, independent media and ethical policy networks can amass evidence and exert pressure to compel a recalibration of global approaches. A diplomacy that cloaks complicity in neutrality perpetuates atrocity machinery. Only one anchored in Sudanese agency, empirical truth and unyielding accountability can forge a viable peace.
Sudanese seek no sympathy, only a recalibration among the influential: Cease equating aggressors with guardians, amplifying perpetrator propaganda and supplanting vibrant civic realities with orchestrated facades. Until Washington’s elite perceives Sudanese not as geopolitical subjects but as rights-bearing citizens demanding justice, its epistemic maze will continue to license carnage over conciliation.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.
Israel’s military has carried out another deadly attack in northern Gaza despite claiming to resume the fragile ceasefire, which was already teetering from a wave of deadly bombardment it waged the night before.
Israel’s latest aerial attack on Wednesday evening occurred in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya area, killing at least two people, according to al-Shifa Hospital. Israel claimed it had targeted a site storing weapons that posed “an immediate threat” to its troops.
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The attack adds further uncertainty to Gaza’s fragile ceasefire, which was shaken by the fiercest episode of Israeli bombardment on Tuesday night since it entered into force on October 10.
Following the reported killing of an Israeli soldier in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful” retaliatory strikes on Gaza. The resulting attacks killed 104 people, mostly women and children, said Gaza’s Health Ministry. Israel claimed its strikes targeted senior Hamas fighters, killing dozens, and then said it would start observing the ceasefire again mid-Wednesday.
United States President Donald Trump insisted the ceasefire “is not in jeopardy” despite the latest attacks.
Regional mediator Qatar expressed frustration over the violence, but said mediators are still looking towards the next phase of the truce, including the disarmament of Hamas.
In Gaza, the renewed attacks have retraumatised a population desperate to see an end to the two-year war, said Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza City, Hani Mahmoud.
“A brief hope for calm turned into despair,” said Mahmoud. “For a lot of people, it’s a stark reminder of the opening weeks of the genocide in terms of the intensity and the scale of destruction that was caused by the massive bombs on Gaza City.”
Khadija al-Husni, a displaced mother living with her children at a school in Gaza’s Shati refugee camp, said the latest attacks came just as people had “started to breathe again, trying to rebuild our lives”.
“It’s a crime,” she said. “Either there is a truce or a war – it can’t be both. The children couldn’t sleep; they thought the war was over.”
On Wednesday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the UN chief strongly condemned “the killings due to Israeli air strikes of civilians in Gaza” the day before, “including many children”.
UN rights chief Volker Turk also said the report of so many dead was appalling and urged all sides not to let peace “slip from our grasp”, echoing calls from the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union for the parties to recommit to the ceasefire.
Hamas, for its part, denied its fighters had any “connection to the shooting incident in Rafah” that killed an Israeli soldier and reaffirmed its commitment to the ceasefire.
However, it said it would postpone transferring the remains of a deceased captive due to Israel’s latest truce violations, further fuelling Israeli claims that the group is stalling the captive handover process. Hamas warned any “escalation” from Israel would “hinder the search, excavation and recovery of the bodies”.
Israel, meanwhile, officially barred Red Cross representatives from visiting Palestinian prisoners, claiming such visits could pose a security threat.
Hamas said the ban, which was already effectively in place during the war in Gaza, violates the rights of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and “adds to a series of systematic and criminal violations they are subjected to”, including killing, torture and starvation.
The Elders, a group of respected former world leaders, called on Wednesday for the release of one of those Palestinian prisoners – Marwan Barghouti. The Palestinian leader continues to be held by Israel despite Hamas including him in its list of prisoners for release as part of the ceasefire deal.
Israel has refused to release Barghouti, who is often referred to as the Palestinian Nelson Mandela.
Barghouti is serving several life sentences for what Israel says is involvement in attacks against civilians – a claim he denies.
“Marwan Barghouti has been a long-term advocate for a two-state solution by peaceful means, and is consistently the most popular Palestinian leader in opinion polls,” The Elders said in a statement, calling on US President Donald Trump to ensure the release of Barghouti.
“We condemn the ill-treatment, including torture, of Marwan Barghouti and other Palestinian prisoners, many of whom are arbitrarily detained,” The Elders added. “Israeli authorities must abide by their responsibilities under international law to protect prisoners’ human rights.”
Fighters with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces recorded themselves conducting an execution while surrounded by dead bodies inside el-Fasher’s Saudi Hospital. As Hiba Morgan reports, it’s the latest example of RSF paramilitaries filming their own actions.
Published On 29 Oct 202529 Oct 2025
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Mohammed Zakaria had not slept in two days when the news came that el-Fasher, his hometown, had fallen to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
The Sudanese video journalist and human rights activist had been monitoring the deteriorating situation from Kampala, Uganda, watching as the paramilitary seized the North Darfur governor’s office in the city on Friday, edging closer to taking control of all of it.
He feared the worst.
For Zakaria, the “nightmare” scenario is intensely personal. Searching through social media after the city’s fall, he discovered footage posted on Facebook by RSF soldiers celebrating, standing over dead bodies. He recognised three of his uncles among the dead.
“They are celebrating by killing them,” he said.
He said another uncle’s Facebook profile photo had been changed to an image of an RSF fighter, a chilling message about his possible fate.
“We don’t know where he is … we’re really scared for him,” he said.
The city fell to the RSF on Sunday after an 18-month siege, the Sudanese army confirming its withdrawal from what was its last outpost in the Darfur region, held for months by the resolve of fighters holed up there.
The RSF’s capture of el-Fasher gives the paramilitary control over all five state capitals in Darfur, marking a significant turning point in Sudan’s civil war.
El-Fasher endured one of the longest urban sieges in modern warfare this century. The RSF began encircling it in May 2024 and intensified its assaults after being driven from the capital, Khartoum, by the army in March.
What followed its fall has been described by international observers as a massacre on an unprecedented scale, with satellite imagery and social media footage pointing to mass atrocities by RSF fighters, reportedly along ethnic lines.
“We have been talking about this for more than a year. We knew this would happen,” Zakaria told Al Jazeera, his voice breaking.
Sarra Majdoub, a former UN Security Council expert on Sudan, told Al Jazeera observers were warning for months of the city’s fall, like other major urban areas in Darfur that were captured by the RSF, but “they surprisingly held on for a really long time”.
A communications blackout has all but cut off connection from the city, leaving those with loved ones there in a state of anxious uncertainty.
An estimated 260,000 civilians remained trapped in the city when it fell, half of them children.
The Sudan Doctors Network said a “heinous massacre” had taken place in el-Fasher, while the Joint Forces, a coalition of armed groups allied with the Sudanese army, said 2,000 people had been executed. The UN said it documented 1,350 deaths.
The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which monitors the war in Sudan, reported Tuesday that satellite imagery revealed evidence consistent with mass killings, including what seem to be visible pools of blood and clusters of corpses.
Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab, told a media briefing on Tuesday that the killings were “only comparable to Rwanda-style killings”, referring to the 1994 Tutsi genocide in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed in weeks.
As early as October 2, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk warned of the risk of “large-scale, ethnically driven attacks and atrocities”, calling for immediate action to prevent it.
Social media footage verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking agency after the city’s fall showed many instances of RSF fighters carrying out summary executions of civilians. In one video, an RSF commander bragged that he had killed 2,000 people.
In a statement on Monday, the RSF said it was committed to “protecting civilians”.
Majdoub told Al Jazeera that the voyeuristic nature of the videos recorded by RSF fighters was among the “most disturbing elements” of the violence.
She recalled that fighters filming abuses had been seen before in places such as el-Geneina in West Darfur and Gezira state, “but el-Fasher has been different, their violence is more exaggerated.”
“It is very painful,” Zakaria said, “finding videos in social media, and then you find that you know this person, who is a friend, or a distant relative, or uncle, surrounded by RSF fighters.
“This is a reality now for many people”.
He remains unable to locate dozens of friends and relatives.
Among them is Dr Mudathir Ibrahim Suleiman, medical director of Saudi Hospital, whom Zakaria last spoke to early Saturday morning, hours before the RSF took the city.
“He told me he would escape with his father and relatives,” Zakaria said. “Until now, I didn’t hear anything … We found that some doctors reached Tawila, but Dr Mudathir is not among them.”
Darfur’s governor, Minni Minnawi, said on Wednesday the RSF had committed a massacre in the Saudi Hospital, killing 460 people. He also posted footage on X showing a summary execution.
Residents who spoke to Al Jazeera in the weeks before the final offensive described daily bombardments and periodic drone strikes. People dug trenches to hide in at dawn as shelling began, sometimes remaining underground for hours.
The United Nations migration agency reported that more than 26,000 people fled the fighting since Sunday, either heading to the outskirts of the city or attempting the dangerous journey to Tawila, 70km (43.5 miles) to the west.
Zakaria left el-Fasher in June 2024, during the siege, making the perilous journey through South Sudan to Uganda after his house was shelled and he witnessed a deadly attack that killed seven people, including women and children, near his grandfather’s home.
“It was like the hardest decision I have made in my life, to leave my city,” he said.
From Kampala, he continued monitoring the violence and advocating for people.
El-Fasher had appealed for intervention for more than 17 months, he said, while humanitarian organisations operated in Tawila, just three hours away by car.
“The time has passed for actions. The genocide is happening now,” he said.
Zakaria says more than 100 people he knows remain unaccounted for in el-Fasher.
He continues searching social media and calling contacts, hoping for information.
Palestinians in Gaza have experienced the deadliest 24 hours since the start of the United States-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas went into effect almost three weeks ago.
Israel killed more than 100 people, including 46 children, in attacks late on Tuesday and on Wednesday. Medical sources told Al Jazeera the strikes hit all over Gaza.
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This adds to dozens of previous ceasefire violations with a rocky outlook ahead. Let’s take a look at where things stand:
The Israeli military said by noon on Wednesday that it was returning to the ceasefire in line with instructions from the political leadership but remained ready to attack again if necessary.
It said it hit more than 30 targets in the besieged enclave, claiming that the targets were “terrorists in command positions within terror organisations”.
But as more residential buildings were flattened by the Israeli bombs, at least 18 members of the same family in central Gaza, including children, parents and grandparents, were among the victims.
Civil Defence teams once again had to use small tools and their hands to dig in the rubble of bombed areas to search for survivors and the dead. Several tents belonging to displaced Palestinian families were also targeted.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, at least 68,643 people have been killed and 170,655 wounded since the start of Israel’s genocidal war in October 2023.
On Tuesday, Israel announced that the body of a captive transferred from Gaza by Hamas through the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) did not match one of the 13 to be handed over as part of the ceasefire.
Israeli forensic analysts determined that the remains belonged to Ofir Tzarfati, who was taken to Gaza during the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and whose partial remains were recovered in November of the same year.
Israeli officials reacted furiously, especially far-right ministers in the coalition government who are against stopping the war on Gaza and want Hamas “destroyed”. An organisation run by the families of the captives also expressed outrage and demanded action.
A short time later, the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, said it would hand over the remains of an Israeli captive at 8pm (18:00 GMT), but it held off after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered “powerful strikes” on Gaza.
Heavy gunfire and explosions were also heard in the southern city of Rafah. Israel alleged this was an attack by Hamas fighters, something Hamas rejected.
Israel also accused the Palestinian group of “staging” the recovery of a captive’s remains after showing footage purportedly of Hamas fighters burying a body before calling in the ICRC.
The ICRC said its personnel “were not aware that a deceased person had been placed there prior to their arrival”.
As part of the agreement, which entered into force on October 10, Hamas handed over all remaining 20 living captives held in Gaza within several days.
The group has also handed over the remains of 15 deceased Israeli captives as part of the deal with 13 others remaining unrecovered or undelivered.
Israel has allowed some humanitarian aid into Gaza, but supplies have been well below the 600 trucks a day specified in the ceasefire, a level that is required to help the famine-stricken population.
Israel has also prevented tents and mobile homes from entering the enclave but has let some heavy machinery enter to search for the remains of its captives.
After all the remains are handed over, a second phase of the ceasefire could potentially enter into force, allowing the deployment of an international stabilisation force and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Israeli officials have repeatedly stressed that they will not allow the formation of a sovereign Palestinian state and have been advancing with a plan to illegally annex the occupied West Bank despite international criticism.
Hamas has accused Israel of fabricating “false pretexts” to renew aggression in Gaza.
Before the attacks over the past day, Hamas said Israel had carried out at least 125 violations.
Since October 10, the Health Ministry in Gaza said, at least 211 Palestinians have been killed and 597 wounded in Israeli attacks while 482 bodies have been recovered.
Hamas has also accused Israel of obstructing efforts to recover the bodies of the captives while using the same bodies as an excuse to claim noncompliance.
It pointed out that Israel has prevented enough heavy machinery from entering Gaza to recover the remains and has prevented search teams from accessing key areas.
The Qassam Brigades said its fighters have recovered the bodies of two more deceased captives, Amiram Cooper and Sahar Baruch, during search operations conducted on Tuesday.
Hamas and other Palestinian factions have said they are prepared to hand over administration of Gaza to a technocratic Palestinian body while maintaining that armed resistance is a result of decades-long occupation and apartheid by Israel.
Since the start of the war, civilians have been the main casualties of Israel’s war on Gaza.
They have been disproportionately targeted, as they were in the latest overnight attacks, and have also seen Gaza’s infrastructure and means of living destroyed by bombs and invading Israeli forces.
Because nowhere in Gaza is fully safe, Palestinians underwent another day of panic that the Israeli attacks could be extended.
Israeli warplanes and reconnaissance aircraft continued to hover over the enclave.
The US has repeatedly expressed support for Israel despite its ceasefire violations, emphasising Israel’s right to defend itself.
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire “is not in jeopardy” despite the strikes.
Mediator Qatar has previously condemned violations of the agreement and accused Israel of undermining its implementation. But along with Egypt, it has worked to ensure the deal stays alive.
Hamed and Rida Aliwa have taken up the responsibility of raising dozens of their grandchildren after they lost five of their sons because of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025
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Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab says satellite images appear to show mass killings in Sudan’s western city of el-Fasher.
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025
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The fall of the Sudanese city of el-Fasher to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in mass killings by the group, according to an analysis of satellite imagery viewed by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).
The RSF had laid siege to el-Fasher, the capital city of North Darfur in western Sudan, for more than a year and a half. Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan announced the withdrawal of his forces from their last stronghold in the wider Darfur region late on Monday, a day after the paramilitary RSF seized control of the main Sudanese army base in el-Fasher and declared victory there.
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The fall of el-Fasher has “resulted in the carpet-bombing of large swaths of the city by Sudan Armed Forces, an unknown number of civilian casualties caused by both sides, and almost 15 months of IPC-5 Famine conditions in areas caused by RSF’s siege of the city”, the HRL report said. The HRL determined this by reviewing satellite imagery and open source and remote sensing data from Monday.
“El-Fasher appears to be in a systematic and intentional process of ethnic cleansing of Fur, Zaghawa, and Berti indigenous non-Arab communities through forced displacement and summary execution,” the HRL said.
The RSF has long been accused of targeting non-Arab communities in Darfur, and the HRL, aid groups and experts have previously warned of mass violence and displacement if el-Fasher fell.
HRL’s report showed images containing clusters of objects and ground discolouration that it believes to be evidence of human bodies. The HRL appears to back up other accounts from aid groups that reported chaotic scenes on the ground, including killings, arrests and attacks on hospitals.
“The actions by RSF presented in this report may be consistent with war crimes and crimes against humanity (CAH) and may rise to the level of genocide,” the report said.
The war in Sudan between the RSF and the SAF began on April 15, 2023 and has become the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, with tens of thousands killed and more than 12 million people displaced. There are also fears that Sudan could once again split, more than a decade after the creation of South Sudan.
Darfur is an RSF stronghold while the SAF controls the Sudanese capital Khartoum, as well as the north and east of the country. The RSF advance comes shortly after talks last week by the Quad – a bloc of nations comprised of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – which laid out a roadmap aimed at ending the war in Sudan.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on Palestine, has taken aim at states complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, calling for a new multilateralism that will prevent it from happening again in future.
Albanese presented her new report – “Gaza Genocide: a collective crime” – to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, addressing delegates remotely from the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation in Cape Town, South Africa.
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Israel had, she said, left Gaza “strangled, starved, shattered”. Her report, which examines the role of 63 states in Israel’s actions in both Gaza and the West Bank, calls out the multilateral system for “decades of moral and political failure” in a colonial world order sustained by a global system of complicity”.
“Through unlawful actions and deliberate omissions, too many states have harmed, founded and shielded Israel’s militarised apartheid, allowing its settler colonial enterprise to metastasise into genocide, the ultimate crime against the indigenous people of Palestine,” she said.
Genocide had been enabled, she said, through diplomatic protection in international “fora meant to preserve peace”, military ties ranging from weapons sales to joint trainings that “fed the genocidal machinery”, the unchallenged weaponisation of aid, and trade with entities like the European Union, which had sanctioned Russia over Ukraine yet continued doing business with Israel.
The 24-page report analyses how the “live-streamed atrocity” was facilitated by third states, zooming in on how the United States provided “diplomatic cover” for Israel, using its veto power at the UN Security Council seven times and controlling ceasefire negotiations. Other Western nations had collaborated, it said, with abstentions, delays and watered-down draft resolutions, reinforcing “a simplistic rhetoric of ‘balance’”.
Many states had, it said, continued supplying Israel with arms, “even as the evidence of genocide … mounted”. The report noted the hypocrisy of the US Congress passing a $26.4bn package for Israeli defence, just as Israel threatened the Rafah invasion – supposedly a “red line” for the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
The report also points a finger of blame at Germany, the second-largest arms exporter to Israel during the genocide, with supplies ranging from “frigates to torpedoes”, and the United Kingdom, which has allegedly flown more than 600 surveillance missions over Gaza since war broke out in October 2023.
While acknowledging the “complexity of regional geopolitics”, the report also highlighted the complicity of Arab and Muslim states through US-brokered normalisation deals with Israel.
It points out that mediator Egypt maintained “significant security and economic relations with Israel, including energy cooperation and the closing of the Rafah crossing” during the war.
Albanese said the UNGA should have confronted the “dangerous precedent” of sanctions imposed on her earlier this year by the United States over her criticism of Israel’s actions in Palestine, which had prevented her from travelling to New York in person.
“These measures constitute an assault on the UN itself, its independence, its integrity, its very soul. If left unchallenged, these sanctions will drive yet another nail into the coffin of the multilateral system,” she said.
The Gaza genocide “exposed an unprecedented chasm between peoples and their governments, betraying the trust on which global peace and security rest”, said the report.
Speaking at the UNGA, the special rapporteur called for a new form of multilateralism, “not a facade, but a living framework of rights and dignity, not for the few … but for the many”.
Action taken in the past against South Africa, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Portugal and other rogue states had, she said, shown that “international law can be enforced to secure justice and self-determination”.
Israel is holding captive 95 Palestinian healthcare workers in its prisons. They include doctors, nurses and paramedics detained without charge. Healthcare Workers Watch recorded 80 medical workers taken from Gaza and 15 from the occupied West Bank.
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025
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Dozens of Palestinian bodies have been retrieved from mass graves near al-Shifa Hospital, buried almost a year ago after Israeli forces withdrew from the area. Hani Mahmoud explains how families and aid workers are struggling to identify the victims.
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025
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Israeli drone attack close to the southern city of Khan Younis kills at least 2 people despite ceasefire.
Published On 28 Oct 202528 Oct 2025
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Hamas has handed over the remains of another dead captive to Israel, hours after an Israeli drone attack in southern Gaza killed two Palestinians amid a fragile ceasefire.
The Israeli military said on Monday that the Red Cross had taken custody of the coffin and was in the process of transporting it to the army’s troops in Gaza.
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Under the terms of a United States-brokered ceasefire that took effect on October 10, Hamas has undertaken to return the bodies of all the 28 deceased captives. The remains of 16 had been handed over as of Monday.
The 20 surviving captives were freed on October 13 as part of the truce.
The release of the latest body comes as the families of some of the captives called on the Israeli government to pause the ceasefire if Hamas fails to locate and hand over the bodies.
“Hamas knows exactly where every one of the deceased hostages is held,” the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said.
“The families urge the government of Israel, the United States administration and the mediators not to advance to the next phase of the agreement until Hamas fulfils all of its obligations and returns every hostage to Israel,” the association added.
The statement echoed the Israeli government’s claim that Hamas knows where the remains are.
On Saturday, Hamas negotiator Khalil al-Hayya said there were “challenges” in locating the captives’ bodies because “the occupation has altered the terrain of Gaza”.
He suggested that some of those who had buried the bodies had been killed during the war, while others had forgotten the burial locations.
The day after al-Hayya’s comments, Israel permitted an Egyptian technical team to enter Gaza to help with the task of finding the bodies. The search involves the use of excavator machines and trucks.
Despite the ceasefire, an Israeli drone attack close to the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis killed at least two people on Monday, according to Nasser Hospital.
In total, eight Palestinians have been killed and another 13 injured in Israeli attacks across the enclave over the last 48 hours, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said on Monday. At least 68,527 people have died and 170,395 have been injured since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, it added.
Speaking on board Air Force One on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Israel had not violated the truce through its strike against a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group on Saturday.
“We don’t view that as a violation of the ceasefire,” he said, accusing the target of planning an attack on Israeli troops.”They have the right if there’s an imminent threat to Israel, and all the mediators agree with that.”
In the more than two weeks since the truce began, about 473,000 people have returned to northern Gaza, where they face widespread destruction of property and critical shortages of basic necessities like food and water, according to the United Nations.
Younis al-Khatib, the head of the Palestine Red Crescent Society, has warned that Gaza’s population still faces the same desperate humanitarian emergency as it did before the truce.
“Rebuilding human beings is more difficult than rebuilding destroyed homes,” he said during meetings with Norway’s prime minister and foreign minister in Oslo, noting that residents would need mental health care for years to come.
The World Health Organization also warned that the number of Palestinians in Gaza who need mental health support had risen from about 485,000 to more than one million after two years of Israel’s war.
Almost all the children in the enclave need such help, according to the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, which has said that Gaza has been “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child” over the last two years.
Tess Ingram, the group’s spokesperson in Gaza, explained that this is because of the “sheer number of children who’ve been killed and injured, displaced, separated from their families [or] who have lost a loved one”.
“A classroom of children was killed every single day for two years in this conflict, and the scars of what the children have endured will last for many, many years to come,” Ingram told Al Jazeera, speaking from the al-Mawasi area in the south.
UN spokesman says incident involved a drone dropping a grenade near a patrol, and a tank opening fire on peacekeepers.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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The United Nations and France have condemned an Israeli attack that hit UN peacekeeping troops in southern Lebanon.
UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Monday that the previous day’s attack on UNIFIL troops, which he said involved an Israeli drone dropping a grenade in the vicinity of a patrol, as well as a tank opening fire on peacekeepers near the border town of Kfar Kila, was “very, very dangerous”.
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The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) works with the Lebanese army to enforce a ceasefire struck last year between Israel and the Lebanese armed groupd Hezbollah. Israel has violated the truce on a near-daily basis.
France’s Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs also condemned “the Israeli fire that targeted a UNIFIL detachment” and noted that the incidents followed similar attacks on October 1, 2 and 11.
Dujarric said: “It’s not the first time that we feel we’ve been targeted in different ways by the [Israeli army, including] pointing lasers or warning shots. He said his colleagues at UNIFIL were in touch with the Israeli military to “protest vehemently” against the attacks.
On Sunday, UNIFIL reported an Israeli drone flying over its patrol in an “aggressive manner”, saying its peacekeepers “applied necessary defensive countermeasures to neutralise the drone”. No injuries or damage were reported.
Israel still occupies five positions in southern Lebanon and has been launching near-daily attacks in defiance of the ceasefire. At least two brothers were killed in a strike on the village of al-Bayyad in the Tyre district on Monday.
The Lebanese official news agency ANI said that the two were killed in an attack on a sawmill in al-Bayyad.
Three people were killed on Sunday in raids on southern and eastern Lebanon.
The military says that it is targeting members of Hezbollah and its infrastructure, but Lebanese leaders have accused it of attempting to obstruct reconstruction by striking machinery like diggers and bulldozers.
The Israeli army said that its Sunday attacks targeted an arms dealer working for Hezbollah and another man who was “aiding the group’s attempts to rebuild its capacity for military action”.
Hezbollah, severely weakened by Israel’s attacks, has said it is ready to defend itself. “The possibility of war exists but is uncertain; it depends on their calculations,” said Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem in reference to Israel.
The United States government has been pressuring Lebanon to have the group surrender its arms to the country’s army.
US Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus arrived late on Monday in Beirut, where she is scheduled to meet Lebanese leaders.
A 6.1 magnitude earthquake hit western Turkiye Monday night, causing at least three buildings to collapse. Officials have reported no casualties so far. They said the quake was centred in Balikesir province and felt as far away as Izmir and Istanbul.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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After decades of armed struggle, fighters from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, are withdrawing from Turkiye and moving to northern Iraq.
The conflict between the PKK and Turkish forces has killed more than 40,000 people in four decades.
The withdrawal is the latest step in an agreement with the Turkish state, which the group says will see it shift from armed rebellion to democratic politics.
So, will Ankara stick to its end of the bargain and allow the PKK to engage in civil society?
And is Kurdish autonomy now just a pipe dream?
Presenter: Adrian Finighan
Guests:
Hiwa Osman – former adviser to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani
Mohammed D Salih – non-resident senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute
Hisyar Ozsoy – former deputy chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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The first inaugural Gaza International Festival for Women’s Cinema premiered the docudrama, ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ which recounts the final few hours of the Palestinian girl’s life.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, whose March arrest sparked nationwide protests, denies all the charges against him.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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A Turkish court has filed new charges against opposition leader Ekrem Imamoglu, whose arrest in March sparked mass antigovernment protests.
The move by prosecutors on Monday against the jailed Istanbul mayor stems from an investigation launched last week into alleged links to a businessman arrested in July for carrying out intelligence activities on behalf of foreign governments.
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The charges are part of what Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party, or CHP, has labelled a long-running crackdown on the opposition.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government rejects this accusation and insists that Turkiye’s judiciary is independent and the charges and investigations are based squarely on the opposition’s involvement in corruption and other illegal activities.
Imamoglu’s arrest in March on corruption charges caused nationwide protests while he received a jail sentence in July for insulting and threatening the chief Istanbul prosecutor.
The state-run Anadolu news agency said Imamoglu – Erdogan’s main political rival – is suspected, among other things, of transferring personal data of Istanbul residents as part of an effort to secure international funding for his presidential campaign.
Imamoglu has denied all the charges, both in court and on social media.
“Such a slander, lie and conspiracy wouldn’t even cross the devil’s mind!” he wrote on X. “We are facing a shameful indecency that can’t be described with words.”
Imamoglu’s former campaign manager, Necati Ozkan, was also charged alongside Merdan Yanardag, editor-in-chief of the television news channel Tele1.
The channel, which is critical of the government, was seized by the state on Friday, citing the espionage accusations.
Hundreds of supporters rallied outside Istanbul’s main courthouse on Sunday as Imamoglu was questioned by prosecutors. It was the first time he had left Istanbul’s Marmara Prison on the outskirts of Istanbul in seven months.
Critics view his detention and the subsequent additional charges as part of a broader crackdown on the opposition, which made significant gains in last year’s local elections.
CHP mayors and municipalities have faced waves of arrests throughout the year on corruption-related charges.
Erdogan has denied accusations of political interference in the judiciary.
On Friday, an Ankara court dismissed a bid to oust Ozgur Ozel as leader of the CHP in a case centred on allegations of vote buying and procedural irregularities at the party’s 2023 congress.
Palestinians returning to their homes in Gaza are facing danger from unexploded ordnance, with at least 53 people killed and hundreds injured by explosives.
Published On 27 Oct 202527 Oct 2025
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