Reinier de Ridder survives a brutal knockdown to win by split decision against Robert Whittaker in the main event at Etihad Arena in the UAE.
Reinier de Ridder secured the biggest win of his Octagon career at UFC Abu Dhabi, narrowly securing a hard-fought split decision over former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker at the Etihad Arena in the United Arab Emirates.
De Ridder (21-2) earned his third win of 2025 by defeating the Australian by split decision; two of the three judges scored the 84kg (185-pound) bout 48-47 for de Ridder, while a third had it 48-47 for Whittaker.
“I don’t want to fight like this [Whittaker], man, this guy was too tough,” de Ridder said in a post-fight interview on Saturday. “I expected to take him down. He was so tough, so durable. Heavy f****** hands.”
The Dutch fighter had to survive a brutal knockdown in round three when Whittaker dropped him with a right hand to the chin in the opening minute.
De Ridder managed to survive the attack, and consolidated his overall superiority in strikes – de Ridder landed 169 in total, compared with 100 for Whittaker, according to official UFC statistics – and recovered to win the final two rounds by wearing down the 34-year-old with repeated knees to the body and constant grappling.
Throughout the five-round fight, there was little to separate the pair. When the final bell sounded, the split decision reflected the closeness of the contest.
De Ridder’s victory was his fourth Ultimate Fighting Championship career victory. Whittaker (27-9) has now lost two straight and three of his five most recent fights.
Following his victory, de Ridder, ranked 13th heading into the Whittaker fight, called for a title shot against the winner of the middleweight championship bout between Dricus Du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev at UFC 319 on August 16.
“I want to finish a guy in the first round, so maybe it would be better if I fought Khamzat [Chimaev] or Dricus [Du Plessis]. Give me my title shot.”
Whittaker, left, and de Ridder fight during the bout [Fatima Shbair/AP][Fatima Shbair/AP]
In the co-main event, former UFC bantamweight champion Petr Yan defeated Marcus McGhee by unanimous decision. Yan outpaced his opponent in total strikes, significant strikes, control and takedowns.
In the middleweight match, Shara Magomedov bounced back from his first professional loss, which came against Michael Page in February, to win over Marc-Andre Barriault by unanimous decision. Magomedov earned a 30-27 score from all three judges.
Nigeria claim their tenth WAFCON title, ‘Mission X’, as they come from behind to beat Morocco 3-2 in Rabat.
Substitute Jennifer Echegini scored the 88th-minute winner as Nigeria came from two goals behind to beat hosts Morocco 3-2 in a dramatic Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final.
The triumph in Rabat on Saturday confirmed the West Africans as the queens of women’s football in Africa as they pulled off a record-extending 10th title in 13 editions – “Mission X”, as they dubbed their efforts – to win the 2025 edition.
It was the second successive final loss for Morocco, who led by two goals after 24 minutes, only to concede three in the second half.
Esther Okoronkwo played a key role in the Super Falcons’ victory: scoring the first goal, creating the second and delivering the free-kick that Echegini finished to stun the home crowd.
Morocco, backed by a vibrant capacity crowd at the 21,000-seat Stade Olympique in the capital, took the lead on 12 minutes as Nigeria conceded for the first time in open play at the tournament.
Nigeria fluffed several chances to clear the ball, and it fell just outside the area to Chebbak, whose perfectly placed, rising shot gave goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie no chance.
Nigeria’s goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie fails to save a shot during the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final [Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP]
The lead doubled 12 minutes later as the ball flew across the Nigerian goalmouth to Sanaa Mssoudy, who ended a five-match goal drought by steering a low shot into the far corner of the net.
Nigeria had more possession in the opening half than the host nation, but managed only one shot on target, and it did not trouble goalkeeper Khadija Er-Rmichi.
But the Moroccan lead halved after 64 minutes as Okoronkwo sent Er-Rmichi the wrong way from a penalty after a VAR review showed a Folashade Ijamilusi cross striking Nouhaila Benzina’s hand.
The goal lifted the spirits of increasingly assertive Nigeria, and they equalised seven minutes later, when Okoronkwo turned creator with a pull-back that Ijamilusi pushed into the net from close range.
On Friday, Ghana finished third, winning a penalty shootout 4-3 against outgoing champions South Africa after a 1-1 playoff draw in regular time in Casablanca.
After two weakly struck spot kicks in a row by South Africa were saved to give Ghana the advantage, 19-year-old Nancy Amoh converted the decisive penalty with a low shot into the corner of the net.
A blunder by Ghana goalkeeper Cynthia Konlan gifted South Africa the lead on 45 minutes as she lost control of the ball just outside the box, and Nonhlanhla Mthandi struck it into the net.
Persistent Ghanaian pressure finally paid off on 68 minutes when an Alice Kusi header came off the crossbar and long-serving South Africa shot-stopper Andile Dlamini conceded an own goal.
Victory was particularly sweet for the Black Queens as they were outplayed when losing 2-0 to Banyana Banyana (The Girls) in the group stage.
Ghana have won the four third-place playoffs they qualified for, while South Africa have lost four of five bronze medal matches.
The next Women’s Africa Cup of Nations is scheduled for March 2026, also in Morocco, and will double as a qualifying competition for the 2027 Women’s World Cup in Brazil.
As violence and rights abuses rage on, the coalition pledges to pursue a ‘secular, democratic’ and decentralised Sudan.
A Sudanese coalition led by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group has announced it is establishing an alternative government in a challenge to the military-led authorities in the capital Khartoum, with the northeastern African country’s brutal civil war in its third year.
The group, which calls itself the Leadership Council of the Sudan Founding Alliance (TASIS), said RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo will chair the 15-member presidential council of the government, which includes regional governors.
Sudanese politician Mohammed Hassan Osman al-Ta’ishi will serve as prime minister, TASIS said.
“On the occasion of this historic achievement, the leadership council extends its greetings and congratulations to the Sudanese people who have endured the flames of devastating wars for decades,” the coalition said in a statement.
“It also renews TASIS’s commitment to building an inclusive homeland, and a new secular, democratic, decentralized, and voluntarily unified Sudan, founded on the principles of freedom, justice and equality.”
The new self-proclaimed government could deepen divisions and lead to competing institutions as the war rages on between the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
In May, the Sudanese army said it had completely driven the RSF out of the capital, Khartoum.
The fighting since April 2023 has killed tens of thousands and displaced nearly 13 million people, according to United Nations estimates, resulting in one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
In recent months, the violence has been intensifying in the western region of Darfur, where the RSF has been besieging the city of el-Fasher, compounding hunger in the area.
Rights groups have accused both the RSF and SAF of rights abuses. Earlier this year, Amnesty International said RSF fighters were inflicting “widespread sexual violence” on women and girls to “assert control and displace communities across the country”.
Earlier this year, the US imposed sanctions on Hemedti, accusing the RSF of committing “serious human rights abuses” under his leadership, including executing civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.
Sudan has seen growing instability since longtime President Omar al-Bashir was removed from power in 2019 after months of antigovernment protests.
In October 2021, the Sudanese military staged a coup against the civilian government of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, leading to his resignation in early 2022.
Sudan’s army chief, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and Hemedti had shared power after the coup, but then began fighting for control of the state and its resources in April 2023.
Although the rivalry between al-Burhan and Hemedti does not appear to be ideological, numerous attempts to reach a peaceful resolution to the crisis have failed.
A Syrian official tells Al Jazeera Damascus emphasises the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable.
Syrian and Israeli officials have held talks in Paris mediated by the United States, according to a Syrian official, in the wake of an eruption of sectarian violence compounded by Israeli military intervention in southern Syria.
The meeting on Saturday was held to address recent security developments around the southern Druze-majority city of Suwayda, which has been the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks between Bedouins and Druze fighters.
Israel intervened in the conflict, striking government buildings in Damascus and government soldiers in Suwayda province, saying it was doing so to protect the Druze.
The Syrian official told Al Jazeera Arabic that Damascus’s delegation at the Paris meeting emphasised that the unity and sovereignty of Syria are nonnegotiable and Suwayda and its people are an integral part of Syria. It also rejected any attempt to exploit segments of Syrian society for partition, the official said.
The source said the Syrian delegation held Israel responsible for the recent escalation and demanded the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces from the points they had recently advanced to during the unrest.
‘Honest and responsible’
Syria’s state-run Ekhbariya TV, quoting its own diplomatic source, reported that the meeting did not result in any final agreements but the parties had agreed to continue talks aimed at maintaining stability.
The TV source described the dialogue as “honest and responsible” in the first confirmation from the Syrian side that talks had taken place.
On Friday, US envoy Tom Barrack said officials from both countries spoke about de-escalating the situation in Syria during talks on Thursday.
Hundreds of people have been reported killed in the fighting in Suwayda, which also drew in government forces. Israel, which carried out air strikes, during this month’s violence, has regularly struck Syria and launched incursions into its territory since longtime former President Bashar al-Assad was toppled in December.
Last week’s fighting underlined the challenges interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa faces in stabilising Syria and maintaining centralised rule.
Syria’s government announced a week ago that Bedouin fighters had been cleared out of Suwayda and government forces were deployed to oversee their exit from the entire province.
The announcement came after al-Sharaa ordered a new ceasefire between Bedouin and Druze groups after a separate US-brokered deal to avert further Israeli military attacks on Syria.
The diplomatic source, who spoke to Ekhbariya TV, said the meeting on Saturday involved initial consultations aimed at “reducing tensions and opening channels of communication amid an ongoing escalation since early December”.
The United Kingdom says it is working with Jordan on “forward plans” to airdrop aid into besieged Gaza and evacuate children needing medical care as Israel’s forced starvation and bombardment of Palestinians fuel global outrage.
Two infants on Saturday became the latest Palestinian children to die from malnutrition. Hospitals in Gaza have now recorded five new deaths due to famine and malnutrition in the past 24 hours. The total number of starvation deaths in the territory has risen to 127, including 85 children.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed the proposal on Saturday in an emergency call with French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
In a readout of the call, the UK government said the leaders had agreed “it would be vital to ensure robust plans are in place to turn an urgently needed ceasefire into lasting peace,” according to Britain’s Press Association.
“The prime minister set out how the UK will also be taking forward plans to work with partners such as Jordan to airdrop aid and evacuate children requiring medical assistance,” the readout said.
Starmer’s Labour government has been roundly accused at home of doing too little too late to alleviate the intense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK have been protesting weekly against Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, making it clear they feel their voices aren’t being heard.
Public anger has been further stoked as police in the UK arrested more than 100 people at peaceful protests across the country last weekend that called for a ban on the campaign group Palestine Action to be reversed.
Demonstrations took place on Saturday in Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol, Truro and London as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.
Starmer is also facing mounting pressure to recognise a Palestinian state as France has said it will do at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. More than 200 British parliamentarians urged the prime minister to take this course of action this week.
There has been further controversy over accusations the UK government has continued with arms sales to Israel despite stating it had scaled back weapons sales.
A report in May found that UK firms have continued to export military items to Israel despite a government suspension in September amid allegations that the UK Parliament has been deliberately “misled”.
The report by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Progressive International and Workers for a Free Palestine revealed that the UK sent “8,630 separate munitions since the suspensions took effect, all in the category ‘Bombs, Grenades, Torpedoes, Mines, Missiles And Similar Munitions Of War And Parts Thereof-Other’.
‘Waiting for the green light to get into Gaza’
In the meantime, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), said proposed airdrops of aid would be an expensive, inefficient “distraction” that could kill starving Palestinians.
Israel said on Friday that it will allow airdrops of food and supplies from foreign countries into Gaza in the coming days in response to critical food shortages caused by its punishing months-long blockade.
But in a social media post, Lazzarini said the airdrops would “not reverse the deepening starvation” and called instead for Israel to “lift the siege, open the gates [and] guarantee safe movements [and] dignified access to people in need.”
Airdrops, he said, are “expensive, inefficient [and] can even kill starving civilians”. “A manmade hunger can only be addressed by political will,” he said, calling on Israel to allow the UN and its partners to operate at scale in Gaza “without bureaucratic or political hurdles”.
He said UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks in Jordan and Egypt “waiting for the green light to get into Gaza”. “Driving aid through is much easier, more effective, faster, cheaper and safer” than airdrops, he said, adding that it is also more dignified for the people of Gaza.
More than 100 aid and human rights groups this week called on governments to take urgent action as a hunger crisis engulfs Gaza, including by demanding an immediate and permanent ceasefire and the lifting of all restrictions on humanitarian aid.
In a statement signed and released on Wednesday by 109 organisations, including Mercy Corps, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Doctors Without Borders (also known as MSF), the groups warned that deepening starvation of the population was spreading across the besieged enclave.
The trailblazing artist, son of legendary Fairuz and composer Assi Rahbani, was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.
Lebanese musician and composer Ziad Rahbani, son of the iconic singer Fairuz and a pioneer of fusion jazz, has died at the age of 69 of a heart attack.
“On Saturday at 9:00am, the heart of the great artist and creator Ziad Rahbani stopped beating,” said a statement from the hospital where he was being treated in the capital, Beirut, on Saturday.
Rahbani influenced generations of Lebanese people with his songs and especially his plays, whose lines are known by heart by both young and old.
He was the son of Fairuz, the last living legend of Arabic song – and one of the most famous Arab women worldwide – and composer Assi Rahbani, who, along with his brother Mansour, modernised Arabic song by blending classical Western, Russian, and Latin American pieces with Middle Eastern rhythms.
Ziad Rahbani gestures while wearing a scarf of the left-wing Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine group, during a concert in Sidon, southern Lebanon, October 9, 2014 [File: Ali Hashisho/Reuters]
“I admire the music of composers like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie,” Rahbani once said. “But my music is not Western, it’s Lebanese, with a different way of expression.”
Fairouz also became an icon for young people when Rahbani composed songs for her influenced by jazz rhythms – he called it “oriental jazz”.
Lebanon’s leaders paid a heartfelt tribute to the Lebanese composer, who was also a playwright, pianist and political provocateur.
President Joseph Aoun called Rahbani “a living conscience, a voice that rebelled against injustice, and a sincere mirror of the oppressed and marginalised”.
“Lebanon has lost an exceptional and creative artist, a free voice that remained faithful to the values of justice and dignity” and who said “what many did not dare to say”, said Prime Minister Nawaf Salam.
Rahbani’s works reflected the hybrid heritage of Lebanon, which, until the civil war erupted in 1975, was a cultural melting pot. It also reflected the ensuing sectarian strife, which involved bloody street battles between rival militias and three years of violent Israeli occupation after the 1982 invasion.
While Fairuz transcended the powerful sectarian divides in the country, her son chose to be resolutely left-wing and secular, denouncing Lebanon’s longstanding divisions. His breakout play, Nazl el-Sourour (Happiness Hotel), premiered in 1974 when he was only 17, portrayed a society disfigured by class inequality and repression.
The play follows a group of workers who take over a restaurant to demand their rights, only to be dismissed by the political elite.
In this 2010 photo, fans of Lebanese diva Fairouz hold her pictures in Beirut [File: Ahmad Omar/AP]
In another play, Bennesbeh Labokra Chou? (What About Tomorrow?), he plays a jaded bar pianist in post-civil war Beirut. The work features some of Rahbani’s most poignant music and biting commentary, including the famous line, “They say tomorrow will be better, but what about today?”
Rahbani was also a composer of staggering range. He infused traditional Arabic melodies with jazz, funk and classical influences, creating a hybrid sound that became instantly recognisable. His live performances were legendary, when he often played piano in smoky clubs in Hamra, one of Beirut’s major commercial districts.
In recent years, Rahbani appeared less in the public eye, but younger generations rediscovered his plays online and sampled his music in protest movements. He continued to compose and write, speaking often of his frustration with Lebanon’s political stagnation and decaying public life.
“I feel like everything is over, I feel like Lebanon has become empty,” wrote Lebanese actress Carmen Lebbos, his former partner, on X.
Rahbani is survived by his mother, now 90, his sister Reema and brother Hali.
The Israeli blockade of aid has caused a hunger crisis in Gaza and is condemning a growing number of its people to death by starvation. Nonetheless, Palestinian journalists are risking their lives to expose what Western media often softens or obscures: the use of starvation as a tool of genocide.
Contributors: Diana Buttu – human rights lawyer Alice Rothchild – Health Advisory Council, Jewish Voice for Peace Anas al-Sharif – correspondent, Al Jazeera Alex de Waal – author, Mass Starvation
On our radar
In Iran, TV channels, news bulletins and newspapers have been in patriotic overdrive. Meenakshi Ravi reports on the wave of nationalism that has been sweeping across Iran since its 12-day war with Israel.
Galamsey: Covering Ghana’s illegal gold rush
Journalists covering illegal gold mining in Ghana face violent and powerful enemies. Iraklis Taxiarchis reports on the multibillion-dollar “galamsey” industry and the politics influencing its coverage.
Featuring:
Kwadwo Afriyie – Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology Emmanuel Ameyaw – cofounder, Climate Journalists Network Ghana Erastus Donkor – environmental journalist
Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon – Fatima Kandeel, 43, and her two sons moved into a new rented apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut in March.
They had been staying with her sister Aida nearby for four months after a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon had stopped the worst, but not all, of Israel’s attacks on Lebanon, and it felt good to have their own place.
In their barely furnished living room in Laylake, Dahiyeh, with only two armchairs and a shisha pipe between them, the walls make clear where the family stands.
A framed photo of slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah hangs beside a martyr’s portrait of Fatima’s 21-year-old nephew, a Hezbollah fighter killed in an Israeli air strike in Jnoub in October.
In the rubble, scraps of home
When the war in Gaza began on October 7, 2023, Hezbollah declared its support for Palestine and escalated tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border for about a year until Israel invaded and launched full-scale war.
The suburbs of Dahiyeh have been repeatedly targeted in Israeli strikes as it is widely recognised as a Hezbollah stronghold.
The family’s previous home in Dahiyeh’s Hay el-Selom, a 10-minute walk from Laylake, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike in October.
Yet Fatima was warm and hopeful in early June, her hazel eyes still smiling from below her hijab while recounting the pain of loss, displacement and hardship.
Energetic and confident, she spoke expressively, using her hands as if she were on stage.
Like many Lebanese hosts, she offered drinks and an invitation for lunch while chatting about what it was like to feel under attack in Dahiyeh and whether that changed her relationship with her neighbourhood.
After her family’s home was destroyed and they fled to Aida’s, Fatima said, her sons, 24-year-old Hassan and 20-year-old Hussein, managed to salvage two wardrobes and a bed from the rubble along with other scraps from their lives there.
Proud of that small victory, Fatima flung open the bedroom doors to show off the two wardrobes restored to the point where it would be hard to guess they had been in a bombing. The rescued bed is used by one of her sons after getting new slats and a new lease on life.
“These are the most important pieces of furniture in the house,” she said, gently running her hand over one of the damaged surfaces.
Fatima Kandeel stands in front of a salvaged wardrobe, holding a bag of items her sons salvaged from the rubble of their home in Hay el-Selom, which Israel destroyed. She pulls out a stuffed toy that her son Hassan used to play with [Joao Sousa/Al Jazeera]
“They’re historical [because they survived]. I was so happy we got them back.”
Hassan and Hussein found more in the rubble of their home: a stuffed toy that Hassan used to play with and a few of the books from their mother’s library.
As she spoke, Fatima held the stuffed toy in her hands, smiling and looking at it. Hussein was quietly observing his mother as she shared her thoughts.
“He used to sleep with it beside him every night,” Fatima recalled. “I couldn’t save much from their childhood after my divorce, but I kept this, and now it survived the war too.”
In her bedroom, a small table holds a stack of books about history, religion and culture – a fragment of what she once owned.
Scars, visible and invisible
From the living room balcony, the scars of war are visible. The top floors of a neighbouring building have been destroyed, the lower floors still standing – a daily reminder of what was lost.
Yet Fatima holds Dahiyeh dear and is determined to stay.
“I love the people here,” she said. “Everyone is kind. … Dahiyeh is home.”
Hussein agreed that he feels most at home in Dahiyeh with its strong sense of community and friends and neighbours all around.
During the war, he struggled emotionally, constantly stressed and getting into fights. He has seen two therapists but hasn’t felt much improvement.
Unlike his mother, Hussein is open to the idea of leaving Dahiyeh, but he pointed out practicalities – rents and the overall cost of living outside Dahiyeh are much higher if they could find a place to rent.
And, he said, they could face sectarian discrimination if they relocate.
The family had to leave Dahiyeh briefly during Israel’s war on Lebanon and sought shelter in the nearby coastal Beirut suburb of Jnah. Fatima still carries a painful memory from that time.
A Jnah grocery store owner snidely remarked: “Look at those trashy Shia people,” as he looked at newly arrived families dressed in the slippers and pyjamas they fled in.
The comment left a scar, and she refuses to leave Dahiyeh again.
“If war comes again, what do you teach the next generation?” she asked. “That it’s OK to give up your home? Or that you stand your ground?”
A street in Hay El Selom is decorated with posters of Hezbollah martyrs, including late leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Fatima and her sons lived there until their home was destroyed by Israel [João Sousa/Al Jazeera]
‘If it were just me, I’d stay’
While Fatima has chosen to stay in Dahiyeh, her 55-year-old sister, Iman, wants to leave.
Iman lives with her husband, Ali, a plastering foreman, and their four children: Hassan, 25, a programmer; Fatima, 19, a university student; and 16-year-old twins Mariam and Marwa, both in school.
All the children still share a single bedroom in their modest but light and joyful home.
The living room was full of laughter as Iman sat with Mariam and Hassan, passing around chocolate and juice while cousins chatted in the background.
There was teasing as they shared memories of fear, displacement and resilience.
Dahiyeh has never been entirely safe. Its history has been shaped by the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War and Israeli assaults, including the devastating 2006 war.
It’s a cycle, Iman said – another war, another wave of fear and displacement. During Israel’s most recent war on Lebanon, the family fled multiple times.
They first went to Kayfoun village in the Mount Lebanon governorate in late September, but tensions there were high, and a local man spread rumours of imminent Israeli strikes, trying to scare displaced families away.
They left Kayfoun after a week and fled to Tripoli in the north, where life was quieter and the presence of nearby relatives offered some comfort, but mistrust lingered.
Iman was often judged by her hijab, which marked her as “resistance-aligned” to people who blamed Hezbollah for Israel’s attacks on Lebanon.
“We all became introverts,” Hassan recalled. “We stayed home most of the time, but we had relatives nearby and met some good friends. We’d sit together, play cards. It helped.”
In early October, they followed friends to Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, where they were welcomed warmly – more warmly, they said, than in parts of Lebanon.
After the ceasefire, they returned. “There’s no place better than our country,” Iman insisted, but Dahiyeh does not feel safe to her any more despite her deep ties to the neighbourhood, so she is searching for a new home – anywhere that’s safer.
“If it were just me, I’d stay,” she said. “But I have kids. I have to protect them.”
‘They don’t rent to Shia families’
Iman’s son Hassan recalls the first time Israel bombed near their apartment – on April 1 in breach of the November ceasefire.
“I just wanted out,” he said. “I don’t care where we go. Just somewhere that isn’t a target.”
Iman Kandeel in her living room. From left: Her son Hassan, the author, Iman, Iman’s daughter Mariam, Iman’s nephew Hassan and Fatima’s son Hussein, in Hadath, Beirut, a home they are contemplating leaving [Joao Sousa/Al Jazeera]
But finding a new place to rent is far from simple.
They considered moving to Hazmieh. It is close to Dahiyeh but not part of it, making it relatively safer. And it would be closer to Iman’s sister Mariam, who lives there.
But Iman said: “In Hazmieh, most of them don’t rent to Shia families, or they would double the price.”
Despite the mounting fear, the family does not want to leave Lebanon, and Hassan has turned down a job offer abroad. They’re exhausted, they said, but not ready to abandon their country.
Even in the midst of war, Hassan said, his parents did not want to leave Dahiyeh. He had to work on convincing them to go first to Kayfoun, then eventually Iraq.
It was the same after the ceasefire with long discussions about whether to leave, and it was his mother’s fear for her children that made her eventually agree.
But more than a month after they spoke to Al Jazeera in early June, they’re still searching for a place that will take them and that they can afford.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are pleading for help as more people have starved to death under Israel’s unrelenting blockade of the coastal enclave.
The Gaza Health Ministry said in a statement on Friday that local hospitals recorded nine new malnutrition deaths in the previous 24 hours.
That brings the total number of such deaths to 122 since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, including at least 83 children.
“We urgently demand an immediate end to the famine, the opening of all crossings, and the entry of infant formula now, along with 500 aid trucks and 50 fuel trucks daily,” the Health Ministry said.
“We hold the Israeli occupation, the US administration, and other states complicit in this genocide—such as the UK, Germany, and France—as well as the international community at large, fully responsible for this historic crime.”
Sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, told Al Jazeera early on Saturday that a six-month-old infant also succumbed to starvation-related medical complications.
Starvation deaths have steadily increased in Gaza this week as Israel continues to maintain a strict blockade on the territory, preventing a steady flow of food, water, medicine and other supplies from reaching Palestinians.
Noor al-Shana, an independent journalist in central Gaza’s Nuseirat, told Al Jazeera that extreme hunger is affecting all aspects of life in the Strip.
She said she now struggles to find enough for one meal per day, while four of her relatives were killed while seeking food at aid distribution points run by the notorious Israel- and United States-backed GHF.
“The world is just saying ‘Free Palestine’ … We don’t want words, we want solutions,” she said.
“Enough, we are tired,” al-Shana added, fighting back tears. “We are suffocating. We are dying here.”
‘Deliberate mass starvation’
Separately, sources at hospitals in Gaza told Al Jazeera that at least 38 people were killed by Israeli attacks across the enclave since the early hours of Friday morning.
Of that, at least six Palestinians were killed while trying to collect food at aid distribution sites.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), on Friday reiterated criticism of the GHF, calling it a “cruel” politically driven effort that “takes more lives than it saves”.
Lazzarini called for the UN agency’s aid stockpiles to be let into Gaza, warning that the enclave is suffering from “deliberate mass starvation”.
“Today, more children died, their bodies emaciated by hunger,” he said in a post on X. “The unfolding famine can only be reversed by a political will.”
The Israeli military has blamed international organisations for the crisis, claiming that aid trucks are inside Gaza but that the UN has refused to distribute the assistance.
UN officials have rejected that, saying repeatedly that they have not received the necessary approvals from the Israeli authorities to distribute the aid.
The UN and other humanitarian groups have also refused to work with the GHF aid distribution scheme, which they say does not adhere to humanitarian principles such as impartiality and independence.
As the crisis continues to spiral, United States President Donald Trump on Friday solely blamed Hamas for the apparent collapse of Gaza ceasefire talks, saying the group is going to be “hunted down”.
“Hamas didn’t really want to make a deal. I think they want to die, and it’s very, very bad,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The US president’s comments came a day after his Middle East envoy said US negotiators had withdrawn from ceasefire talks in Qatar.
Hamas responded to the US’s announcement with surprise, saying on Thursday that it had submitted a positive and constructive response to the latest proposal it was offered.
Despite Hamas’s insistence that it is ready to work towards a deal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israel and the US are weighing ways to secure the release of captives in Gaza that do not depend on a negotiated agreement with the Palestinian group.
“Together with our US allies, we are now considering alternative options to bring our hostages home, end Hamas’s terror rule, and secure lasting peace for Israel and our region,” Netanyahu said.
Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,676 Palestinians and wounded 143,965 others. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, under pressure to recognise a Palestinian state, said he would do so only as part of a wider peace deal. His Labour-led government is facing growing calls to recognise a Palestinian state after France said it will and a cross-party group of parliamentarians urged Starmer to act before it is too late.
More than 200 lawmakers in the United Kingdom have called on the British government to recognise a Palestinian state, as pressure mounts on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to take concrete action amid Israel’s war on Gaza.
Some 221 MPs from across the political spectrum signed an open letter on Friday calling on Starmer’s Labour government to recognise a Palestinian state in advance of a United Nations conference on Palestine next week.
“We are expectant that the outcome of the conference will be the UK Government outlining when and how it will act on its long-standing commitment on a two-state solution; as well as how it will work with international partners to make this a reality,” the letter reads.
“Whilst we appreciate the UK does not have it in its power to bring about a free and independent Palestine, UK recognition would have a significant impact due to our historic connections and our membership on the UN Security Council, so we urge you to take this step.”
Parliamentarians from nine political parties were among the signatories, Labour MP Sarah Champion said, including Labour, the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, SNP, and the Greens.
The letter comes as public anger is growing in the UK and around the world over Israel’s continued bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has spurred a deadly starvation crisis.
221 MPs, from 9 parties, have sent a joint letter to the Prime Minister & Foreign Secretary urging them to recognise Palestine as a state now pic.twitter.com/b2hbX2XCGR
It also comes a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would recognise the State of Palestine at the UN in September.
“Consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East, I have decided that France will recognise the State of Palestine,” Macron said in a social media post on Thursday.
“I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September. The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.”
Macron’s announcement drew the ire of Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the move “rewards terror”.
But Netanyahu has faced widespread condemnation for Israel’s continuing assault on Gaza, which has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians since it began in October 2023.
Israel’s blockade of the enclave has caused a deepening humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations and top human rights groups reporting that many Palestinian children are now suffering from severe malnutrition and at risk of death.
In a statement on Friday, Starmer said “the appalling scenes in Gaza are unrelenting”.
“The continued captivity of hostages, the starvation and denial of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people, the increasing violence from extremist settler groups, and Israel’s disproportionate military escalation in Gaza are all indefensible,” he said.
But Starmer stopped short of announcing plans to recognise a Palestinian state, instead saying he was working “on a pathway to peace in the region”.
“That pathway will set out the concrete steps needed to turn the ceasefire so desperately needed, into a lasting peace,” he said.
“Recognition of a Palestinian state has to be one of those steps. I am unequivocal about that. But it must be part of a wider plan which ultimately results in a two-state solution and lasting security for Palestinians and Israelis.”
Reporting from a protest outside Starmer’s residence in London on Friday afternoon, Al Jazeera’s Milena Veselinovic said demonstrators expressed “outrage” at the British government’s stance amid the dire situation in Gaza.
“Many of them feel powerless, so one of the only things they can do is gather here, make as much noise as they can, and hope that it will be noticed by the people in power,” she said.
“They want Keir Starmer to do more with the power that he has, and with the influence that he has, to put an end to this.”
In addition to recognising a Palestinian state, the British government has faced growing calls to sanction Israel and impose an arms embargo against the country.
Veselinovic said Starmer is in “a difficult diplomatic situation” as he prepares to meet United States President Donald Trump, who was travelling to Scotland on Friday.
She explained that Macron’s announcement added pressure on the UK, which is a close ally of both France and the US, to also recognise a Palestinian state, but noted that Trump has criticised the French president’s move.
“It does seem like a gulf is emerging here over what the European stance is overall, which is much more aligned with what UN aid agencies are saying is going on on the ground in Gaza, and the American position, which seems to nearly 100 percent back whatever is the Israeli government’s version of events is,” she said.
“And in the middle of that is Keir Starmer, who wants to maintain good relations with both sides.”
Nigeria hunt a 10th WAFCON title against a Morocco side seeking their first when the pair face off in Rabat.
Who: Nigeria vs Morocco What: Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final 2025 Where: Olympic Stadium in Rabat, Morocco When: Saturday at 8pm (19:00 GMT).
Two of the continent’s footballing powerhouses will contest the Confederation of African Football’s (CAF’s) 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) final in Rabat on Saturday as Nigeria take on host nation Morocco.
It’s the 13th edition of the tournament, which was pushed back a year due to scheduling issues.
Al Jazeera takes a look at the match, which could mark a shift in power in the women’s game in Africa.
How many WAFCONs have Nigeria and Morocco won?
Nigeria are the record nine-time champions.
Morocco are yet to lift the trophy but did reach the final on home soil three years ago when they were defeated by South Africa.
How did Nigeria reach the WAFCON final?
Nigeria opened with a 3-0 win against Tunisia, but the highest ranked team needed a late winner to squeeze past the lowest-ranked side, Botswana. A 0-0 draw in their final group game with Algeria secured the top spot in Group B.
Morocco’s defender Nouhaila Benzina and Ghana’s forward Doris Boaduwaa vie for the ball during the 2025 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations semifinal [Abdel Majid Bziouat/AFP]
How did Morocco reach the WAFCON final?
Morocco also remain unbeaten but opened the tournament with a 2-2 draw against Zambia. A 4-2 win against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and 1-0 win against Senegal sealed Group A.
Mali were overcome with a 3-1 win in the last eight before Ghana awaited in the semifinal, in which Morocco needed a penalty shootout following a 1-1 draw after extra time.
‘Mission X’ on Nigeria’s minds
The Nigerian side have come up with branding for their attempt to lift a 10th WAFCON title.
Looking to bounce back from their fourth-place finish in the 2022 edition, the Super Falcons dubbed their ambition to win this event as “Mission X”.
A winning mentality in the Morocco camp
Morocco’s ranks are bolstered by 2022 player of the tournament Ghizlane Chebbak, who netted a hat-trick against the DRC.
Atlas Lionesses coach Jorge Vilda could be heading to back-to-back international titles, having led Spain to the 2023 World Cup.
Three goals: Ibtissam Jraidi (Morocco), Chinwendu Ihezuo (Nigeria), Barbra Banda (Zambia), Racheal Kundananji (Zambia)
Where is WAFCON 2025 being staged?
Morocco have hosted the last two WAFCON finals as the North Africans’ place as a pre-eminent footballing force on the continent is reinforced.
The Royal Moroccan Football Federation is also preparing to stage the 2025 men’s edition of the Africa Cup of Nations and co-host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Where is WAFCON final being staged?
The Olympic Stadium in Rabat with a capacity of 21,000 people will host the final.
What is the prize money for WAFCON 2025?
CAF increased the tournament prize pot by 45 percent to $3.475m.
The prize money for the winners has doubled since the last edition with the victors of Saturday’s match sharing $1m.
Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani and two of his sons affiliated to the group were killed in a raid, the US military says
United States Central Command (CENTCOM) forces have killed a senior ISIL (ISIS) leader and his two sons affiliated to the group in Syria’s Aleppo region, the US military has said.
A post on X on Friday said, “Early this morning in al Bab, Aleppo Governate, Syria, CENTCOM Forces conducted a raid resulting in the death of senior ISIS Leader, Dhiya’ Zawba Muslih al-Hardani, and his two adult ISIS-affiliated sons, Abdallah Dhiya al-Hardani and Abd al-Rahman Dhiya Zawba al-Hardani.”
“These ISIS individuals posed a threat to US and Coalition Forces, as well as the new Syrian Government, ” it added.
“We will continue to relentlessly pursue ISIS terrorists wherever they are. ISIS terrorists are not safe where they sleep, where they operate, and where they hide. Alongside our partners and allies, U.S. Central Command is committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS terrorists that threaten the region, our allies, and our homeland,” General Michael Erik Kurilla, US CENTCOM commander, said.
In late May, ISIL claimed responsibility for an attack on the Syrian army, representing the armed group’s first strike at government forces since the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to analysts.
In a statement regarding that attack, ISIL said its fighters had planted an explosive device that struck a “vehicle of the apostate regime” in southern Syria.
ISIL, which views the new government in Damascus led by President Ahemd al-Sharaa as illegitimate, has so far concentrated its activities against Kurdish forces in the north.
The fledgling Syrian government has had to contend with Israeli bombardment and incursions into its territory since al-Assad’s overthrow, as well as the eruption of sustained sectarian violence in the southern city of Suwayda in recent weeks.
Georges Ibrahim Abdallah flown to Lebanon from France after incarceration ends.
France has released Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian Lebanese fighter jailed since 1984, and put him on a flight to Beirut after he spent nearly four decades behind bars.
Shortly before 3:40am (01:30 GMT) on Friday, a convoy of six vehicles with flashing lights was seen leaving the Lannemezan prison in southern France, according to journalists with the AFP news agency on the ground. A source confirmed the 74-year-old had been freed and later boarded a flight to Lebanon.
Abdallah, who was convicted in 1987 for his role in the killings of United States military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov in Paris, had long been eligible for release. However, repeated applications were rejected, often due to pressure from the US, which was a civil party in Abdallah’s case.
Last month, the Paris Court of Appeal ruled in favour of his release, effective on Friday, on the condition that Abdallah leave French territory and never return.
His lawyer, Jean-Louis Chalanset, told AFP that the former fighter appeared “very happy” during their final visit “even though he knows he is returning to the Middle East in an extremely tough context for Lebanese and Palestinian populations”.
Abdallah, the founder of the now-defunct Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, had declared during a recent visit by a lawmaker that he remained a “militant with a struggle”. French police uncovered submachine guns and communication equipment in one of his flats at the time of his arrest.
Abdallah has never expressed regret for his actions and has always insisted he is a “fighter” who has battled for the rights of Palestinians and is not a “criminal”.
The Paris court described his behaviour in prison as irreproachable and said in November that he posed “no serious risk in terms of committing new terrorism acts”.
The appeals court cited the length of Abdallah’s detention and his advanced age, calling his continued imprisonment “disproportionate”. In France, inmates serving life sentences are typically released after less than 30 years.
Abdallah’s family said they would greet him at Beirut’s airport before travelling to his hometown of Kobayat in northern Lebanon, where a reception has been planned.
The ruling might set a precedent to allow prosecution of other government leaders linked to atrocities.
France’s highest court is set to rule on whether it can strip the state immunity of Bashar al-Assad, the toppled Syrian leader in exile in Russia, because of the sheer brutal scale of evidence in accusations documented against him by Syrian activists and European prosecutors.
If the judges at the Cour de Cassation lift al-Assad’s immunity on Friday, it could pave the way for his trial in absentia over the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta in 2013 and Douma in 2018.
It could also set a precedent to allow the prosecution of other government leaders linked to atrocities, human rights activists and lawyers say.
Al-Assad has retained no lawyers for these charges and has denied he was behind the chemical attacks.
The opposition has long rejected al-Assad’s denial, as his forces were the only side in the ruinous, nearly 14-year civil war to possess sarin.
A ruling against al-Assad would be “a huge victory for the victims”, said Mazen Darwish, president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression, which collected evidence of war crimes, quoted by The Associated Press news agency.
“It is not only about Syrians; this will open the door for the victims from any country and this will be the first time that a domestic investigative judge has the right to issue an arrest warrant for a president during his rule.”
He said the ruling could enable his group to legally go after government members, like launching a money laundering case against former Syrian Central Bank governor and Minister of Economy Adib Mayaleh, whose lawyers have argued he had immunity under international law.
Brutal crackdown
For more than 50 years, Syria was ruled by Hafez al-Assad and then his son, Bashar.
During the Arab Spring, rebellion broke out against their rule in 2011 across the country of 23 million, igniting a brutal civil war that killed more than half a million people, according to the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). Millions more fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkiye and Europe.
The al-Assad dynasty also fomented sectarian tensions to stay in power, a legacy driving renewed recent violence in Syria against minority groups, despite promises that the country’s new leaders will carve out a political future for Syria that includes and represents all its communities.
As the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for leaders accused of atrocities – such as Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Ukraine, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza, and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines – the French judges’ ruling could empower the legal framework to prosecute not just deposed and exiled leaders but those currently in power.
The Syrian government denied in 2013 that it was behind the Ghouta attack, but the United States subsequently threatened military retaliation, then settled for a deal with Moscow for al-Assad to give up his chemical weapons stockpile, opening the way for Russia to wield huge influence in the war-torn nation.
Al-Assad survived more than a decade longer, aided militarily by Russia and Iranian-aligned groups, including Hezbollah, before being overthrown by rebel groups.
Iranian diplomats are meeting their counterparts from Germany, the United Kingdom and France for renewed nuclear talks, amid warnings that the three European powers could trigger “snapback” United Nations sanctions outlined under a previous 2015 deal.
The meeting, which is under way in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday morning, is the first since Israel’s mid-June attack on Iran, which led to an intensive 12-day conflict, with the United States militarily intervening on Israel’s behalf and attacking key Iranian nuclear sites.
Israel’s offensive – which killed top commanders, nuclear scientists and hundreds of civilians, as residential areas were struck, as well – also derailed US-Iran nuclear talks that began in April.
Iran said on Friday that the meeting is an opportunity for the so-called E3 group of Germany, UK and France to correct their positions on Iran’s nuclear issue. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said in an interview with state news agency IRNA that Iran considers the talk of extending UN Security Council Resolution 2231 to be doubly “meaningless and baseless”.
The resolution, which cemented the 2015 deal Iran reached with world powers, under which it curbed enrichment in return for much-needed sanctions relief, is due to expire in October. It enshrines the big powers’ prerogative to restore UN sanctions.
Since then, the E3 have threatened to trigger the “snapback mechanism”, which would reinstate the sanctions on Iran by the end of August, under the moribund 2015 nuclear deal which US President Donald Trump unilaterally torpedoed in 2018 during his first term.
The option to trigger the snapback expires in October, and Tehran has warned of consequences should the E3 opt to activate it.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi, who is attending the talks Friday, alongside senior Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi, warned this week that triggering sanctions “is completely illegal”.
He also accused European powers of “halting their commitments” to the deal after the US withdrew from it.
“We have warned them of the risks, but we are still seeking common ground to manage the situation,” said Gharibabadi.
Warning from Tehran
Iranian diplomats have previously warned that Tehran could withdraw from the global nuclear non-proliferation treaty if UN sanctions are reimposed.
Restoring sanctions would deepen Iran’s international isolation and place further pressure on its already strained economy.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar has urged European powers to trigger the mechanism. Israel’s June 13 attack on Iran came two days before Tehran and Washington were scheduled to meet for a sixth round of nuclear negotiations.
On June 22, the US struck Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz.
Before the conflict, Washington and Tehran were divided over uranium enrichment, which Iran has described as a “non-negotiable” right for civilian purposes, while the US called it a “red line”.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says Iran is enriching uranium to 60 percent purity – far above the 3.67 percent cap under the 2015 deal, but well below the 90 percent needed for weapons-grade levels.
Tehran has said it is open to discussing the rate and level of enrichment, but not the right to enrich uranium.
A year after the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran reportedly began rolling back its commitments, which had placed restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.
Israel and Western powers accuse Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons – a charge Tehran has consistently denied. Both US intelligence and the IAEA said they had seen no evidence of Iran pursuing a nuclear weapon in the build-up to the June conflict.
Enrichment is ‘stopped’
Iran insists it will not abandon its nuclear programme, which Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called a source of “national pride”.
The full extent of the damage sustained in the US bombing remains unclear. Trump has claimed the sites were “completely destroyed”, but US media reports have cast doubt over the scale of destruction.
Araghchi has noted that enrichment is currently “stopped” due to “serious and severe” damage to nuclear sites caused by US and Israeli attacks.
In an interview with Al Jazeera that aired on Wednesday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Iran is prepared for another war and reiterated that its nuclear programme will continue within the framework of international law, adding the country had no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.
Since the 12-day conflict, Iran has suspended cooperation with the IAEA, accusing it of bias and of failing to condemn the attacks.
Inspectors have since left the country, but a technical team is expected to return in the coming weeks, after Iran said future cooperation would take a “new form”.
Israel has warned it may resume attacks if Iran rebuilds facilities or moves towards weapons capability. Iran has pledged a “harsh response” to any future attacks.
US protest group Code Pink is targeting key politicians they say are involved in Israel’s starvation campaign in Gaza. The group has previously targeted former President Joe Biden and Senator Lindsey Graham over their support for Israel’s war.
The E3 nations meeting marks the first since Israel targeted Iran’s key nuclear and military sites in a 12-day war last month.
Iran has reaffirmed its right to enrich uranium on the eve of a key meeting with European powers threatening to reimpose nuclear sanctions.
Friday’s meeting, set to take place in Istanbul, will bring Iranian officials together with officials from Britain, France and Germany – known as the E3 nations – and will include the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas.
It will be the first since Israel’s mid-June attack targeting key Iranian nuclear and military sites led to a 12-day war that ended in a ceasefire on June 24.
“Especially after the recent war, it is important for them [European countries] to understand that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s position remains unshakable, and that our uranium enrichment will continue,” the Tasnim news agency quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying on Thursday.
The United States joined its ally Israel in the offensive, striking three Iranian nuclear facilities overnight between June 21 and 22.
Israel launched its attack on Iran just two days before Tehran and Washington were set to resume negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on Thursday that Tehran would be prepared to engage in further talks on its nuclear programme with the US if Washington takes meaningful steps to rebuild trust.
In a social media post, Gharibabadi also said that for talks to take place with the US, Tehran would seek “several key principles” to be upheld.
These include “rebuilding Iran’s trust – as Iran has absolutely no trust in the United States”, he said, adding there could be no room “for hidden agendas such as military action, though Iran remains fully prepared for any scenario”.
Britain, France and Germany – alongside China, Russia and the US – are parties to a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which placed major restrictions on its atomic activities in return for the gradual lifting of United Nations sanctions.
Britain, France and Germany maintained their support for the 2015 accord and sought to continue trade with Iran.
But they have since accused Tehran of failing to uphold its commitments and are threatening to reimpose sanctions under a clause in the agreement that expires in October – something Iran is eager to avoid.
The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, says Iran is the only non-nuclear-armed country currently enriching uranium to 60 percent – far beyond the 3.67 percent cap set by the 2015 accord. Ninety percent enrichment is required for a nuclear weapon.
Western powers, led by the US and backed by Israel, have long accused Tehran of secretly seeking nuclear weapons.
Iran has repeatedly denied this, insisting its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes such as energy production.
Tehran and Washington had held five rounds of nuclear talks starting in April, but a planned meeting on June 15 was cancelled after Israel launched its strikes on Iran.
Israel’s leadership views its 12-day war with Iran last month as a success – several Iranian military leaders were killed, Iran’s defensive military capabilities were weakened, and the United States was convinced to take part in a raid on the Iranian nuclear site at Fordow.
But while Israeli leaders were quick to claim victory, they emphasised that they were ready to attack again if necessary, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he had “no intention of easing off the gas pedal”.
And Israel is already looking for the next opportunity to wage another devastating conflict aimed at bringing down the Islamic Republic in Iran, analysts told Al Jazeera.
However, to do so, it would require the ‘permission’ of the US, which may not be willing to give it.
Back in mid-June, a surprise Israeli attack led to the war, in which more than 1,000 Iranians and 29 Israelis were killed.
Israel justified the war by claiming that it was acting preemptively and in “self-defence” to take out Iran’s nuclear programme, which Tehran has long said is for civilian purposes.
“We are fully prepared for any new Israeli military move, and our armed forces are ready to strike deep inside Israel again,” he said.
Cause for war
Despite Israel’s emphasis that it was targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities, it mainly assassinated high-ranking government and military officials, indicating a clear attempt to weaken and possibly bring down the regime.
Trita Parsi, an expert on Iran and the cofounder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute, a left-wing US think tank, believes Netanyahu is looking for an opportunity to resume that mission.
“The reason the Israelis want to attack again … is because they want to make sure they turn Iran into the next Syria or Lebanon – countries Israel can attack anytime with impunity,” he told Al Jazeera.
Israel’s next opportunity to muster up a pretext for a war could come after European countries reimpose debilitating sanctions on Iran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is reported to have held a call with his counterparts from Germany, France and the United Kingdom earlier in July, in which they agreed that United Nations Security Council sanctions would be reimposed if a new nuclear deal was not agreed upon by the end of August.
The sanctions had been lifted when Iran and several Western countries agreed on a nuclear deal in 2015.
The US pulled out of that deal two years into President Donald Trump’s first term in 2018 and restored sanctions as part of a maximum pressure campaign. Now, European parties to the deal could do the same, and that could prompt Iran to walk out of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, warned Parsi.
“That would provide [Israel] with a political window to [attack again],” he told Al Jazeera.
Meir Javedanfar, Iran lecturer at Israel’s Reichman University, added that Israel would nevertheless have to muster up or present credible intelligence that suggests Iran is rebuilding or repairing its nuclear programme.
He warned that, “to launch such an attack, Israel would need the agreement of the United States and its President Trump”, permission he regarded as less likely in light of US concern over Israeli attacks on Syria.
Israeli operations
While Israeli strikes on Iran may not be imminent, a report in The New York Times on Wednesday suggests that it is carrying out covert operations responsible for sudden explosions and fires across the country.
The paper cited three informed officials and a European diplomat who attributed the apparently random fires and explosions at apartment complexes, oil refineries, near an airport and a shoe factory, to acts of sabotage likely carried out by Israel.
“I think Benjamin Netanyahu has found a formula where it is able to attack Iran with impunity despite pushback from Donald Trump,” said Negar Mortazavi, an expert on Iran with the Center for International Policy (CIP), a think tank based in Washington, DC.
Any ongoing covert operations are a result of Israel’s extensive infiltration of Iranian security and infrastructure that became apparent during the early stages of the June conflict, with individuals targeted through what was presumed to be teams of local intelligence operatives and drones launched against Iranian targets from within Iranian territory.
There was no evidence to suggest that Israel’s network within Iran had ended with the war, analyst and Iran expert Ori Goldberg said.
“Israel has built a robust [security] system within Iran and, like all such systems, its muscles need flexing occasionally,” he said from Tel Aviv. “Sometimes this isn’t for strategic reasons, so much as tactical ones. As soon as you have infrastructure or people in place within another country, you have a limited time to use them, so if that’s setting fires or setting detonations, it’s a way of keeping them active and letting Iran know they’re there.”
Likelihood of new war
Few could have predicted the complete absence of restraint with which Netanyahu, previously a figure considered to be somewhat averse to conflict, has attacked neighbouring states, Syria and Lebanon, as well as regional actors, such as Yemen and Iran, while maintaining his brutal assault upon Gaza.
But while a renewed offensive upon Israel’s historical bogeyman, Iran, might prove popular in the face of growing internal division over Israel’s war on Gaza, how well received it might be by his principal ally remains to be seen.
“Trump is a concern and Israel will want to keep on the right side of whatever line he’s drawn [on its actions],” Goldberg said. “But Iran is a consensus issue within Israel. People might argue about Gaza, but never Iran. If Netanyahu feels himself under threat, he’s going to want to crack the Iranian whip and unify people behind him.”
Iran, for its part, won’t be caught flat-footed a second time, say analysts.
Mortazavi told Al Jazeera that Iran is expecting Israel to continue its aggression, even as it still holds out hope to reach a deal on its nuclear programme through diplomacy.
“I think they know that a deal will reduce the chances of an Israeli attack,” she said.
At least 62 people have been killed, including 19 who were seeking aid, in Israeli attacks across Gaza, hospital sources told Al Jazeera, and two people died from malnutrition amid growing international outrage over Israel’s conduct in the war.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said on Thursday that at least 115 Palestinians have starved to death in the enclave since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023. Most of the deaths, which include many children, have been in recent weeks.
Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza in March and has only allowed a trickle of aid into the territory since late May, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis and warnings of mass starvation.
In a statement on Thursday, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) warned that “families are breaking down” amid the hunger crisis.
“Parents are too hungry to care for their children,” agency head Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X. “Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food or means to follow medical advice”.
The UN humanitarian agency, OCHA, added that Israel has been preventing it from verifying aid waiting at distribution centres.
Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Hani Mahmoud said the situation was deteriorating, with Palestinians clamouring for any aid they can find.
“Enforced starvation, enforced dehydration, and hunger are gripping the Gaza Strip, with more people reported with malnutrition and a severe, acute shortage of food supplies and other basic necessities,” he said.
“According to what we hear from health sources, people’s immune systems are falling apart. They’re unable to fight the many diseases that are spreading because their bodies are unable to fight,” he said.
With dire conditions on the ground largely unchanged, international condemnation has continued to grow.
On Thursday, more than 60 members of the European Parliament (MEPs) demanded an emergency meeting to push actions against Israel in a letter sent to European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Lynn Boylan, an Irish member of the European Parliament, accused EU leaders of a double standard when it comes to Palestinian lives.
“Clearly, Palestinian lives are not seen by the elite in the EU as equivalent to, for example, Ukrainian lives,” Boylan told Al Jazeera.
“There’s a chilling effect, that if you dare to speak up against Israel, if you dare to call out the war crimes that you’re witnessing, there is immediately a backlash and an attack,” she said.
Outrage among European leaders has also soared in recent days, with 28 countries earlier this week condemning the aid blockade, while calling for an immediate end to the fighting.
On Thursday, the United Kingdom’s government announced Prime Minister Keir Starmer would hold a call with his German and French counterparts, to “discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they desperately need”.
Breakdown in talks
As the humanitarian situation in Gaza continues to spiral, negotiations to end the war again broke down, with US envoy Steve Witkoff announcing that his team was leaving negotiations in Qatar early.
That came shortly after Israel announced it was withdrawing its delegation from the talks.
In a statement, Witkoff accused Hamas of showing “a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire”.
“We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza,” Witkoff said, without elaborating.
Hamas, which has repeatedly accused Israel of blocking a ceasefire agreement, said it was surprised by Witkoff’s remarks.
“The movement affirms its keenness to continue negotiations and engage in them in a manner that helps overcome obstacles and leads to a permanent ceasefire agreement,” said Hamas in a statement released late on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has continued to push for a deal, while simultaneously supporting the displacement of Palestinians from the enclave to nearby countries, in what would potentially constitute ethnic cleansing.
France to recognise Palestine
Late on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced he would officially recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September.
Macron said the decision was “in keeping with [France’s] historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East”.
The move will make France the largest and arguably most influential country in Europe to recognise a Palestinian state.
The move was hailed by the deputy of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who said it showed France’s “commitment to international law and its support for the Palestinian people’s rights to self-determination and the establishment of our independent state”.
Israeli officials swiftly condemned the move, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling it a “disgrace and a surrender to terrorism”.
“We will not allow the establishment of a Palestinian entity that would harm our security, endanger our existence, and undermine our historical right to the Land of Israel,” he said.
![A busy street in Hay El Selom, decorated by posters of Hezbollah martyrs, including the late leader of the organisation, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, where Fatima and her two sons used to live before their home was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in 2024 [João Sousa/Al Jazeera]](https://www.occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025_0603_13502900-1-1753003833.jpg)
![Iman Kandeel and some members of her family gather in their living room in Hadath, Beirut, a home they are contemplating leaving if the war between Israel and Lebanon escalates again [João Sousa/Al Jazeera]](https://www.occasionaldigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/2025_0604_161735002-1-1753006743.jpg)
