Middle East

Boston Consulting Group questioned over involvement in establishing the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

A parliamentary committee in the United Kingdom is demanding that a US consulting giant explain its activities in Gaza, including its role in establishing a controversial aid group under scrutiny over the killings of hundreds of Palestinians.

Labour Party MP Liam Byrne, who chairs the House of Commons Business and Trade Select Committee, asked Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in a letter on Wednesday for “clarification and information” about its work in the besieged enclave, adding that the query was part of the committee’s “scrutiny of the UK’s commercial, political and humanitarian links to the conflict”.

Byrne’s letter to BCG CEO Christoph Schweizer comes after The Financial Times reported on Friday that the firm had drawn up an estimate of the costs of relocating Palestinians from Gaza and signed a multimillion-dollar contract to help create the Israel- and US-backed GHF.

Gaza health authorities say that more than 700 Palestinians have been killed trying to access aid at distribution centres run by the GHF, which has been disavowed by the United Nations and numerous aid organisations.

The UK newspaper also reported on Monday that the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), run by the former British prime minister, participated in message groups and calls for a post-war development plan for Gaza that relied on BCG modelling.

In his letter, Byrne asked for a “clear and comprehensive response” to a list of questions, including a “detailed timeline” of when BCG began work on establishing the GHF.

Byrne also demanded information from BCG about other companies and institutions, as well as funding sources, linked to the creation of the group.

The GHF, which began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in late May, has drawn widespread criticism amid numerous reports that its US security contractors and Israeli forces have opened fire on aid seekers.

While noting that BCG had ended its involvement with the GHF, and that some of the associated work had been “unauthorised”, Byrne said the firm should provide specific details on what activities were not authorised, “when and how” the work was undertaken, and what actions were made to correct those activities.

Byrne also called for more information about BCG’s work on proposals to relocate the population of Gaza, which have been condemned by Palestinians in the enclave, rights groups and the UN.

“Who commissioned or requested this work? Which individuals or entities . . . did BCG engage with in this context? Is any such work ongoing or active in any form? Were any UK-based organisations – including companies, NGOs, academics or think-tanks – involved?” Byrne said in the letter.

Byrne directed BCG to respond by July 22, “given the seriousness of these issues and the high level of public interest”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also floated the idea of relocating Palestinians during his meetings this week with US President Donald Trump at the White House.

In a statement issued earlier this week, BCG said that “recent media reporting has misrepresented” the firm’s potential role in the post-war reconstruction of Gaza.

The firm said that two of its partners “failed to disclose the full nature of the work” they carried out without payment in helping to establish the GHF.

“These individuals then carried out subsequent unauthorised work. Their actions reflected a serious failure of judgment and adherence to our standards,” the company said, adding that the two partners had been fired.

Two of Gaza’s largest hospitals have issued desperate pleas for help, warning that fuel shortages caused by Israel’s siege could soon turn the medical centres into “silent graveyards”.

The warnings from al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza City and Nasser Hospital in southern Khan Younis came on Wednesday, as Israeli forces continued to bombard the Palestinian enclave, killing at least 74 people.

Muhammad Abu Salmiyah, the director of al-Shifa Hospital, Gaza’s largest facility, told reporters that the lives of more than 100 premature babies and some 350 dialysis patients were at risk.

“Oxygen stations will stop working. A hospital without oxygen is no longer a hospital. The lab and blood banks will shut down, and the blood units in the refrigerators will spoil,” Salmiyah said.

“The hospital will cease to be a place of healing and will become a graveyard for those inside,” he said.

Abu Salmiyah went on to accuse Israel of “trickle-feeding” fuel to Gaza’s hospitals, and said that al-Shifa’s dialysis department had already been shut down to conserve power for the intensive care unit and operating rooms, which cannot be without electricity for even a few minutes.

‘Final hours’

In Khan Younis, the Nasser Medical Complex said it, too, has entered “the crucial and final hours” due to the fuel shortages.

“With the fuel counter nearing zero, doctors have entered the battle to save lives in a race against time, death, and darkness,” the hospital said in a statement. “Medical teams fight to the last breath. They have only their conscience and hope in those who hear the call – save Nasser Medical Complex before it turns into a silent graveyard for patients who could have been saved.”

Mohammed Sakr, a spokesman for the hospital, told the Reuters news agency that the facility needs 4,500 litres (1,189 gallons) of fuel per day to function, but it now has only 3,000 litres (790 gallons) – enough to last 24 hours.

Sakr said doctors are performing surgeries without electricity or air conditioning, and the sweat from staff is dripping into patients’ wounds, risking infection.

A video from Nasser Hospital, posted on social media, shows doctors sweating profusely as they perform a surgery.

“Everything is turned off here. The air conditioning is turned off. No fans,” a doctor says in the video as he demonstrates conditions in the ward. “All the staff are exhausted, they are complaining [about the] high temperature.”

Israel’s relentless bombardment has decimated Gaza’s healthcare system in the 21 months since it launched its assault on the Palestinian enclave in the wake of the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023.

Since then, there have been more than 600 recorded attacks on health facilities in Gaza, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). As of May this year, only 19 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, with 94 percent of all hospitals damaged or destroyed.

Israeli forces have also killed more than 1,500 health workers in Gaza, and detained 185, according to official figures.

The WHO, meanwhile, has described Gaza’s health sector as being “on its knees”, with shortages of fuel, medical supplies and frequent arrivals of mass casualties from Israeli attacks.

Suffocating siege

Marwan al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza, told Al Jazeera that “hundreds” of people could die in the territory if fuel supplies are not brought in urgently.

This includes “dozens” of premature babies who could die within the next two days, he said. Dialysis and intensive care patients would also lose their lives, he said, adding that the injuries of the wounded were worsening amid deteriorating conditions, while diseases like meningitis were spreading.

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who recently returned from Gaza, said, “You can have the best hospital staff on the planet”, but if they are denied medicine and fuel, operating a health facility “becomes an impossibility”.

Israel has imposed a suffocating siege on Gaza since early March.

Over the past weeks, it has allowed some food into Gaza to be distributed through a United States-backed group at sites where hundreds of aid seekers have been shot dead by Israeli soldiers.

But fuel has not entered the territory in more than four months.

“What little fuel remains is already being used to power the most essential operations – such as intensive care units and water desalination – but those supplies are running out fast, and there are virtually no additional accessible stocks left,” the UN’s humanitarian agency (OCHA) said on Tuesday.

“Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink. The deaths this is likely causing could soon increase sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in – urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities.”

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 57,575 people and wounded 136,879, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

A top US Department of State official waived nine mandatory counterterrorism and anti-fraud safeguards to rush a $30m award last month to a controversial Gaza aid group backed by the Trump administration and Israel, the Reuters news agency reported, citing an internal memorandum.

Jeremy Lewin, a former Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) associate, signed off on the award despite an assessment in the memorandum that the GHF funding plan failed to meet required “minimum technical or budgetary standards”.

The June 24 action memorandum to Lewin was sent by Kenneth Jackson, also a former DOGE operative who serves as an acting deputy US Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator. The pair has overseen the agency’s dismantling and the merger of its functions into the State Department.

Lewin also overrode 58 objections that USAID staff experts wanted GHF to resolve in its application before the funds were approved, the Reuters news agency reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter.

Lewin, who runs the State Department’s foreign aid programme, cleared the funds only five days after GHF filed its proposal on June 19, according to the June 24 “action memorandum” bearing his signature.

“Strong Admin support for this one,” Lewin wrote to USAID leaders in a June 25 email, Reuters reported, that urged disbursement of the funds by the agency “ASAP”.

Lewin and Jackson have not issued comments on the matter.

The documents underline the priority the Trump administration has given GHF despite the group’s lack of experience and the killing of hundreds of Palestinians near its Gaza aid distribution hubs.

GHF, which closely coordinates with the Israeli military, has acknowledged reports of violence, but claims they occurred beyond its operations area.

Lewin noted in the email that he had discussed the funds with aides to Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s negotiator on Gaza, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s office.

He acknowledged that authorising the funds would be controversial, writing, “I’m taking the bullet on this one.”

‘Inhumane and deadly’

There was no comment from the White House.

Reuters said Witkoff and Rubio did not reply to a question about whether they were aware of and supported the decision to waive the safeguards.

The State Department told Reuters that the $30m was approved under a legal provision allowing USAID to expedite awards in response to “emergency situations” to “meet humanitarian needs as expeditiously as possible”.

“The GHF award remains subject to rigorous oversight, including of GHF’s operations and finances,” the statement said. “As part of the award, GHF was subject to new control and reporting requirements”.

A GHF spokesperson told Reuters, “Our model is specifically designed to prevent waste, fraud, and abuse. Every dollar we receive is safeguarded to ensure all resources — which will eventually include American taxpayer funds — reach the people of Gaza.” The spokesperson added that such requests for clarification from the US government about fund applications were routine.

Speaking about the nine conditions that were waived, the spokesperson said, “We are addressing each question as per regulations and normal procedure and will continue to do so as required.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said at least 743 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,891 others injured while seeking assistance at GHF aid sites.

The GHF, which began operating in the bombarded Palestinian enclave in late May, has drawn widespread criticism amid multiple reports that its contractors, as well as Israeli forces, have opened fire on aid seekers.

Leading humanitarian and human rights groups have demanded the immediate closure of the GHF, which they accused of “forcing two million people into overcrowded, militarised zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties”.

Amnesty International has described the group’s operations as an “inhumane and deadly militarised scheme”, while the UN insists that the model is violating humanitarian principles.

Palestinians under bombardment in Gaza, where a famine looms as Israel maintains a crippling blockade, have no choice but to seek aid from the GHF despite the risks involved.

Washington, DC – The White House says Donald Trump’s “utmost priority” in the Middle East is to end the war in Gaza.

But as the United States president hosts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week, the two leaders have heaped praise on each other. Meanwhile, Israel continues its assault on the Palestinian territory, where more than 57,575 people have been killed.

Analysts say that, if Trump is truly seeking a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, he must leverage his country’s military aid to Israel to pressure Netanyahu to agree to a deal.

Brian Finucane, a senior adviser with the International Crisis Group nonprofit, drew a parallel between Trump’s mixed messaging and that of his predecessor Joe Biden. Both men, he said, called for a ceasefire but showed unwillingness to press Israel to end the fighting.

“It’s like deja vu with the Biden administration, where you would hear similar pronouncements from the White House,” said Finucane.

“If a ceasefire is indeed the ‘utmost priority’ of the White House, it has the leverage to bring it about.”

The US provides Israel with billions of dollars in military assistance each year, on top of offering it diplomatic backing at international forums like the United Nations.

While US officials expressed optimism about reaching a 60-day truce this week that could lead to a permanent ceasefire, Netanyahu told reporters in Washington, DC, that Israel still has to “still to finish the job in Gaza” and eliminate the armed group Hamas.

Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, described Netanyahu’s comments as “maximalist rhetoric” and “bluster”, stressing that Trump can push Israel to stop the war.

He said Trump can use the “threat of suspension of military support” to achieve the ceasefire, “which very much would be in the interest of the United States and the interest of the president himself in terms of scoring a diplomatic win”.

Trump and Netanyahu ‘in lockstep’

Netanyahu arrived in Washington, DC, on Monday and took a victory lap with Trump to celebrate their joint attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities during a 12-day war last month.

From the start, the Israeli prime minister appeared to play to Trump’s ego. As he sat down to a White House dinner on Monday night, Netanyahu announced he had nominated the US president for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The two leaders met again on Tuesday, with Trump saying that their talks would be all about Gaza and the truce proposal.

A day later, Netanyahu said he and Trump are “in lockstep” over Gaza.

“President Trump wants a deal, but not at any price,” the Israeli prime minister said. “I want a deal, but not at any price. Israel has security requirements and other requirements, and we’re working together to try to achieve it.”

But Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said that Israel is the party standing in the way of a ceasefire. She noted that Hamas has already demanded a lasting end to the war, which is what the Trump administration says it is seeking.

“While we know Trump has said he wants a ceasefire, thus far we’ve not seen Trump being willing to use America’s extensive leverage to actually get there,” Sheline told Al Jazeera.

Far from stopping the flow of arms to Israel, the Trump administration has taken pride in resuming the transfer of heavy bombs — the only weapons that Biden temporarily withheld during the war on Gaza.

Dire situation in Gaza

While truce talks are ongoing, the horrors of Israel’s war on Gaza — which UN experts and rights groups have described as a genocide — are intensifying.

Hospitals are running out of fuel. Cases of preventable diseases are on the rise. Hunger is rampant. And hundreds of people have been killed by Israeli fire over the past weeks while trying to receive food at US-backed, privately run aid distribution sites.

Nancy Okail, the president of the Center for International Policy, said Trump appears to be interested in a Gaza ceasefire in part to boost his own image as a peacemaker and to win a Nobel Peace Prize.

During the presidential campaign, Trump promised to bring peace to the world, seizing on Americans’ weariness of war after the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But so far, he has failed to end the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. And he oversaw the outbreak of war between Israel and Iran, even ordering the US’s participation in it.

The US president took credit for a Gaza truce that came into effect in January, only to let it unravel as he supported Israel’s decision to resume the war in March.

Okail said the atrocities in Gaza cannot be stopped with just verbal calls for a ceasefire.

“If it is not accompanied by action — as in the suspension of aid or suspension of arms to Israel — Netanyahu doesn’t have any reason to actually go forward seriously with the peace negotiations,” she told Al Jazeera.

Netanyahu pushes displacement

Even if a 60-day truce is reached, rights advocates are concerned that Israel not only may return to war afterwards, but it might also use the time to drive Palestinians out of Gaza and further entrench its occupation.

Hamas said on Wednesday that it agreed to release 10 Israeli captives as part of the proposed deal, but the remaining sticking points are about the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and guarantees for a permanent ceasefire.

Before Netanyahu arrived in Washington, DC, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz revealed a plan to create a concentration camp for Palestinians in southern Gaza, according to the newspaper Haaretz.

The publication quoted Katz as saying that Israel would implement an “emigration plan” to remove Palestinians from Gaza, which rights groups say would amount to ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity.

The idea of depopulating Gaza is not new. Far-right Israeli ministers have been publicly championing it since the start of the war.

But the international community started taking the idea seriously when Trump floated it in February, as part of his desire to turn Gaza into the “Riviera of the Middle East”.

Netanyahu brought it up again during his visit, saying that Palestinians in Gaza should be free to leave the territory if they choose.

‘Involuntary transfer’

While the Trump administration has not re-endorsed the ethnic cleansing scheme in Gaza this week, the White House still suggested that Palestinians cannot remain in Gaza.

“This has become an uninhabitable place for human beings, and the president has a big heart,” Trump’s spokesperson Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

“He wants this to be a prosperous, safe part of the region where people and families can thrive.”​​

Rights advocates have stressed that people under bombardment and with no access to basic necessities cannot have a “free” choice to stay or leave a place.

Sheline said the international fears that Trump and Netanyahu are working to ethnically cleanse Gaza and displace its Palestinian residents elsewhere are warranted.

“There was a lot of discussion of the idea that, maybe because the US helped Israel with its war on Iran, that would be the leverage used for a ceasefire in Gaza,” she said.

“But instead, it sort of seems to be something like: If Netanyahu agrees to a ceasefire, then the US will facilitate this involuntary transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza.”

For her part, Okail likened pushing people to leave Gaza under the threat of bombardment and starvation to shoving Palestinians out of the enclave at gunpoint.

“If expanding the occupation and ethnic cleansing is their approach to ceasefire, it means they want to kill any ceasefire attempt, not negotiate one,” she told Al Jazeera.

Trump administration says it is targeting Francesca Albanese for encouraging ICC war crime prosecution against Israel’s Netanyahu.

Washington, DC – The administration of United States President Donald Trump has imposed sanctions on United Nations expert Francesca Albanese over her documentation of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians during its war on Gaza.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the penalties on Wednesday, accusing Albanese of waging a “campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel”.

Albanese, who serves as UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, has been a leading global voice in calling for action to end Israel’s human rights violations.

Israel and its supporters have been rebuking Albanese and calling for her to be removed from her UN position for years.

Earlier on Wednesday, she called out European governments for allowing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crime charges in Gaza – to use their airspace while travelling.

“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the [international] legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese wrote in a social media post.

Rubio cited Albanese’s push for the prosecution of Israeli officials at the ICC as the legal basis for the sanctions.

Trump had issued an executive order in February to impose penalties on ICC officials involved in “targeting” Israel.

Last month, the Trump administration sanctioned four ICC judges.

On Wednesday, Rubio accused Albanese of anti-Semitism.

“That bias has been apparent across the span of her career, including recommending that the ICC, without a legitimate basis, issue arrest warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant,” he said.

The ICC charged Netanyahu and Gallant with crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza for depriving Palestinians in the enclave of “objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine”.

Rubio also highlighted a recent report by Albanese that documented the role of international companies, including US firms, in the Israeli assault on Gaza, which she describes as a genocide.

“We will not tolerate these campaigns of political and economic warfare, which threaten our national interests and sovereignty,” the top US diplomat said.

Trump’s ICC decree freezes the assets of targeted individuals in the US and bans them and their immediate family members from entering the country.

Nancy Okail, head of the Center for International Policy (CIP) think tank, decried the sanctions against Albanese as “devastating”.

“Sanctioning a UN expert gives the signal that the United States is acting like dictatorships and rogue states,” Okail told Al Jazeera.

Over the past 21 months, Israel’s US-backed campaign in Gaza has levelled most of the territory and killed at least 57,575 Palestinians, according to local health officials.

Trump is hosting leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal on Wednesday for with discussions to focus on business opportunities.

United States President Donald Trump is meeting with leaders from five African nations as he escalates a trade war that could impact developing countries reliant on commerce with the US.

On Wednesday, Trump hosted leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal at the White House for talks and a working lunch, with discussions expected to centre on business opportunities, according to a White House official.

During the lunch, Trump said they hail from “very vibrant places with very valuable land, great minerals, great oil deposits and wonderful people”.

“There’s a lot of anger on your continent. We’ve been able to solve a lot of it,” Trump said, pointing to a recent peace agreement leaders of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda recently signed at the White House.

The leaders are expected to discuss key areas of cooperation, including economic development, security, infrastructure and democracy, according to statements from the White House and Liberia. Trump said the five countries were unlikely to face US tariffs.

President Trump Participates in a Multilateral Lunch with African Leaders https://t.co/nkcx56xF74

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 9, 2025

Trump is expected to soon announce dates for a broader summit with African leaders, possibly in September around the time of the United Nations General Assembly.

This week’s mini-summit marks the latest effort by successive administrations to counter perceptions that the US has neglected a continent where China has increasingly made economic inroads.

Trade, investment in focus

Wednesday’s meeting is expected to focus on economics.

During the meeting, Gabon’s President Brice Oligui Nguema told Trump his country was open to investment and wants to see its raw mineral resources processed locally, but needs large investments in energy to do so.

“We are not poor countries. We are rich countries when it comes to raw materials. But we need partners to support us and help us develop those resources with win-win partnerships,” Nguema said at the meeting.

Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye suggested his country also offered investment opportunities for tourism, including a golf course.

Faye said the course would only be a six-hour flight from New York and suggested Trump could visit to show off his skills.

The US International Development Finance Corporation said earlier in the day it would provide project development funding for the Banio Potash Mine in Mayumba, Gabon, helping Gabon reduce its dependence on imports.

“DFC’s efforts not only benefit the countries and communities where they invest but also advance US economic interests by opening new markets, strengthening trade relationships, and promoting a more secure and prosperous global economy,” said DFC head of investments Conor Coleman.

The five nations whose leaders are meeting Trump represent a small fraction of US-Africa trade, but they possess untapped natural resources.

Senegal and Mauritania are important transit and origin countries when it comes to migration, and along with Guinea-Bissau, are struggling to contain drug trafficking, both issues of concern for the Trump administration.

However, African Union officials question how Africa could deepen trade ties with the US under what they called “abusive” tariff proposals and visa restrictions largely targeting travellers from Africa.

The top US diplomat for Africa, Ambassador Troy Fitrell, has dismissed allegations of unfair US trade practices.

Earlier this month, US authorities dissolved the US Agency for International Development and said it was no longer following what they called “a charity-based foreign aid model” and instead will focus on partnerships with nations that show “both the ability and willingness to help themselves”.

Those cuts could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, research published by The Lancet medical journal showed last week.

The White House has sent letters to 20 different countries this week announcing new tariffs.

US President Donald Trump has issued a new round of tariff letters to six countries, including Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova and the Philippines.

The letters, which were sent on Wednesday, call for tariffs of 30 percent on Algeria and Iraq; 25 percent on Brunei, Libya and Moldova; 20 percent on the Philippines – the largest of the trading partners announced on Wednesday. The tariffs are expected to start on August 1.

Trump posted the letters on Truth Social after the expiration of a 90-day negotiating period that began with a baseline levy of 10 percent. Trump is giving countries more time to negotiate before his August 1 deadline, but he has insisted there will be no extensions for the countries that receive letters.

The Census Bureau reported that last year, the US ran a trade imbalance on goods of $1.4bn with Algeria, $5.9bn with Iraq, $900m  with Libya, $4.9bn with the Philippines, $111m with Brunei and $85m with Moldova.

The imbalance represents the difference between what the US exported to those countries and what it imported. None of the countries listed are major industrial rivals to the United States.

Taken together, the trade imbalances with those six countries are essentially a rounding error in a US economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $30 trillion.

Wednesday’s letters are the latest in a slate the Trump Administration sent to nations around the globe. On Monday, he threatened Japan and South Korea with 25 percent tariffs, stepping up pressure on the two historical US allies and a dozen other economies to reach trade deals with Washington.

Over the weekend, the Trump administration began sending letters to countries informing them that the US would begin to reimpose the tariffs it postponed in April. Trump’s erratic approach to tariffs is triggering widespread economic effects on the US and countries around the world.

In the US, the most recent jobs report showed little to no growth in sectors including trade and construction, industries largely impacted by tariffs. The US GDP contracted 0.5 percent in the first quarter of the year, according to data released by the US Department of Commerce’s report last month.

This comes amid a handful of looming trade negotiations across the globe that will impact the US economy and many of its key trade partners.

The Trump administration has only put forth two trade agreements thus far, which are with the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

US markets have stayed stable despite the new tariffs. As of 12:30pm Eastern Time (16:30 GMT), the Nasdaq is up 0.5 percent. The S&P 500 is about even with the market open, only up about 0.2 percent, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is up by 0.1 percent.

Footage from the occupied West Bank city of Hebron shows Israel installing mobile housing units in a section of the city formally under the control of the Palestinian Authority, raising fears of further settlement expansion.

Yemen’s Houthis have released a video showing their attack on the Magic Seas, a commercial ship they said had sunk in the Red Sea. The group says it’s targeting vessels linked to Israel in support of Palestinians in Gaza.

The BRICS bloc of developing nations aims to challenge the US-led economic order. In theory, it has the clout to push through reforms to global governance. But critics say the expanded group faces rifts among its members.

BRICS leaders have criticised US policies, including trade tariffs, during the gathering in Brazil’s Rio de Janiero, but they shied away from naming Washington directly.

President Donald Trump responded by threatening a 10% levy on any country that aligns itself with BRICS policies.

And the UN special rapporteur says global companies should be held accountable for profiting from the genocide in Gaza.

Staff at the Tony Blair Institute participated in a project to redevelop Gaza into the Donald Trump-envisioned ‘riviera of the Middle East’, a report has found. The plan includes expelling Palestinians, as Soraya Lennie explains.

Surge in Red Sea attacks after months of calm potentially signals revival of Houthis’ campaign over Gaza war.

Five crew members have been rescued from a Liberian-flagged cargo ship in the Red Sea after a suspected attack from Yemen’s Houthi group, according to a maritime monitor. The attack is so far known to have killed at least three sailors out of the 22-member crew and wounded two.

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre (UKMTO), run by the British military, said on Wednesday that “search and rescue operations commenced overnight” after Monday’s attack on the Greek-owned Eternity C.

UKMTO had said on Tuesday that the ship sustained “significant damage” and “lost all propulsion”. UK-based security firm Ambrey told the AFP news agency that the badly damaged vessel had sunk off Yemen’s port city of Hodeidah, which is under the control of the Houthis.

20250708-UKMTO_WARNING_INCIDENT_027-25-UPDATE 003https://t.co/yo0ifPJbtT#MaritimeSecurity #MarSec pic.twitter.com/7VTJBPT8Tt

— UKMTO Ops Centre (@UK_MTO) July 9, 2025

The Houthis, who say they are targeting Israel-linked ships as part of a campaign of solidarity with Palestinians under relentless Israeli fire, to pressure the Israeli military to end its assault on Gaza, have not claimed responsibility for the attack.

However, it came one day after they claimed responsibility for attacking another cargo ship – the Magic Seas – in the Red Sea, causing it to sink. All the crew were rescued.

The assaults mark the first attacks on shipping in the Red Sea since late 2024, potentially signalling the start of a new armed campaign threatening the waterway, which had begun to see more traffic in recent weeks.

After Sunday’s attack on the Magic Seas, the Houthis declared that ships owned by companies with ties to Israel were a “legitimate target”, pledging to “prevent Israeli navigation in the Red and Arabian Seas … until the aggression against Gaza stops and the blockade is lifted”.

Yemen’s exiled government, the European Union’s Operation Aspides military force and the US State Department blamed the rebels for the attack on Eternity C.

“These attacks demonstrate the ongoing threat that Iran-backed Houthi rebels pose to freedom of navigation and to regional economic and maritime security,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.

“The United States has been clear: We will continue to take necessary action to protect freedom of navigation and commercial shipping from Houthi terrorist attacks,” she added.

The bulk carrier had been heading north towards the Suez Canal when it came under fire by men in small boats and by bomb-carrying drones on Monday night, with security guards on board firing their weapons, according to Operation Aspides and Ambrey, cited by The Associated Press news agency.

Operation Aspides told AFP on Tuesday that three people had been killed, with at least two injured, including “a Russian electrician who lost a leg”.

Authorities in the Philippines told AFP that there were 22 crew on the Eternity C, all but one of them Filipinos.

The Eternity C’s operator, Cosmoship Management, has not commented on casualties or injuries.

In separate incidents, Israel’s military and the Houthis exchanged strikes on Sunday, with Israel saying it had bombed three ports and a power plant in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, prompting the Iran-allied group to fire more missiles towards Israeli territory.

Israel said it struck the ports of Hodeidah, Ras Isa and as-Salif on the Red Sea coast as well as the Ras Kathib power plant.

It said it also struck a radar system on the Galaxy Leader, which was seized by the Houthis and remains docked in the port of Hodeidah.

Influential leader records message from prison, saying ‘care and sensitivity’ needed for peace process.

Abdullah Ocalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has announced the end of the group’s armed struggle against Turkiye, calling for a full shift to democratic politics.

The jailed leader relayed his message via a video recording dated June, which was aired by the PKK-aligned Firat News Agency on Wednesday, describing the shift as a “historic gain”.

“This represents a voluntary transition from the phase of armed conflict to the phase of democratic politics and law,” said Ocalan, who has been in prison since 1999, but remains a hugely influential figure among Kurds in Turkiye and beyond.

He said the process of voluntary disarmament of Kurdish PKK fighters and the creation of a Turkish parliamentary committee to oversee the peace process would be “crucial”.

“Care and sensitivity are essential,” he said, adding that details of the disarmament process would be “determined and implemented swiftly”.

Ocalan’s message was released just days before the first PKK disarmament ceremony in northern Iraq.

Back in May, the PKK had already announced it was disbanding after more than 40 years of armed struggle against the Turkish state.

The announcement came two months after Ocalan, also known as “Appo” – Kurdish for Uncle – called on the group to disarm in February.

For most of its history, the PKK has been labelled a “terrorist” group by Turkiye, the European Union and the United States.

Ocalan was born to a poor Kurdish farming family in 1948, in Omerli, Sanliurfa, a Kurdish-majority part of Turkiye.

It was after studying political science at Ankara University that he became politically active, founding the PKK in 1978.

Six years later, the group launched a separatist rebellion against Turkiye under his command.

More than 40,000 people were killed between 1984 and 2024, with thousands of Kurds fleeing the violence in southeastern Turkiye into cities further north.

Rome Statute signatories Italy, France and Greece accused of ‘violating’ international legal order by letting alleged war criminal fly over territory.

Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has hit out at countries that allowed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over their airspace en route to the United States, suggesting that they may have flouted their obligations under international law.

Albanese said on Wednesday that the governments of Italy, France and Greece needed to explain why they provided “safe passage” to Netanyahu, who they were theoretically “obligated to arrest” as an internationally wanted suspect when he flew over their territory on his way to meet United States President Donald Trump on Sunday for talks.

All three countries are signatories of the Rome Statute, the treaty that established The Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002, which last year issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity perpetrated during Israel’s war on Gaza.

“Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int’l legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” Albanese wrote on X.

Albanese was responding to a post by human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber, who had said the previous day that the countries had “breached their legal obligations under the treaty [Rome Statute], have declared their disdain for the victims of genocide, and have demonstrated their contempt for the rule of law”.

Netanyahu’s visit to the US, during which he and Trump discussed the forced displacement of Palestinians amid his country’s ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, was not his first sortie since the ICC issued the warrant for his arrest.

In February, Netanyahu travelled to the US, which is not party to the Rome Statute, becoming the first foreign leader to meet Trump after his January inauguration.

Then, in April, Netanyahu visited Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban in Budapest, the latter having extended his invitation just one day after the ICC issued the arrest warrant, withdrawing the country’s ICC membership ahead of the Israeli leader’s arrival.

From Hungary, Netanyahu then flew to the US for a meeting with Trump, his plane flying 400km (248 miles) further than the normal route to avoid the airspace of several countries that could enforce an arrest warrant, according to Israel’s Haaretz newspaper.

Member states of the ICC are expected to take subjects of arrest warrants into custody if those individuals are on their territory.

In practice, the rules are not always followed. For instance, South Africa, a member of the court, did not arrest Sudan’s then-leader Omar al-Bashir during a 2017 visit, despite an ICC warrant against him.

European Union countries have been split on the ICC warrant issued for Netanyahu.

Some said last year they would meet their ICC commitments, while Italy has said there were legal doubts. France has said it believes Netanyahu has immunity from ICC actions.

‘Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink,’ UN humanitarian office says.

The United Nations humanitarian office, OCHA, has warned that the fuel crisis in Gaza due to the Israeli blockade has reached a “critical point” and will cause further deaths and suffering in the besieged Palestinian territory.

OCHA said the fuel powering vital functions in Gaza, including water desalination stations and hospitals’ intensive care units, is running out quickly, with “virtually no additional accessible stocks left”.

“Hospitals are rationing. Ambulances are stalling. Water systems are on the brink,” the office said in a statement.

“The deaths this is likely causing could soon increase sharply unless the Israeli authorities allow new fuel in – urgently, regularly and in sufficient quantities.”

Israel has imposed a suffocating siege on Gaza since early March.

Over the past weeks, it has allowed some food into Gaza to be distributed through a United States-backed group at sites where hundreds of aid seekers have been shot dead by Israeli fire.

But fuel has not entered the territory in months.

Senior World Food Programme official Carl Skau also decried the lack of fuel in Gaza.

“The needs are greater than ever, and our capacity to respond has never been more constrained. Famine is spreading, and people are dying trying to find food,” Skau said in a social media post.

“Our teams in Gaza are doing their best to deliver aid and are often caught in the crossfire. We are suffering from shortages of fuel, spare parts and essential communications equipment.”

The director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Muhammad Abu Salmiya, said that the situation at the medical centre is alarming due to the lack of fuel supplies.

“We don’t have enough fuel left until morning. If fuel is not available, generators cannot run, and hospitals find it difficult to provide care,” Abu Salmiya told Al Jazeera.

“Blood banks, nurseries and oxygen stations are not operating because of a lack of fuel. Patients will be doomed to certain death if fuel is not provided to hospitals.”

The health sector in Gaza has already been pushed to the brink under Israeli bombardment and repeated displacement orders.

Aid workers and health experts have been reporting a rise in preventable diseases in the territory amid the dire humanitarian situation.

On Tuesday, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said the enclave is seeing an uptick in cases of meningitis, a potentially deadly disease, especially among children.

“The catastrophic conditions in shelters, the severe shortage of drinking water, the spread of sewage, and the accumulation of waste are driving the health situation to further deterioration,” the ministry said.

Meningitis, which causes inflammation around the brain and spinal cord, can be caused by a bacterial infection.

In addition to the humanitarian crisis, Israel is pressing on with its intense bombardment of the territory. Medical sources told Al Jazeera that Israeli attacks killed at least 95 Palestinians in Gaza on Tuesday.

Israeli attacks killed dozens of displaced people in and around tents in the al-Mawasi area near Khan Younis and in Gaza City’s Shati refugee camp.

UN experts and rights groups have described Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza as a genocide.

United States President Donald Trump has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House for a second time in 24 hours to discuss a possible ceasefire deal in Gaza.

The unscheduled talks on Tuesday evening lasted just over an hour, with no media access.

Ahead of the meeting, Trump said he would be speaking with Netanyahu “almost exclusively” about Gaza.

“We gotta get that solved. Gaza is… it’s a tragedy, and he wants to get it solved, and I want to get it solved, and I think the other side wants to,” he said.

The two men had also met for several hours during a dinner at the White House on Monday during Netanyahu’s third visit to the US since the president began his second term on January 20.

Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, said the latest meeting was “tightly sealed with very little information coming out”.

“The fact that it was so hermetically sealed, the fact that there has been no clear readout of exactly what was discussed, the fact that the meeting lasted just over an hour before the prime minister returned to his residence – all of it may indicate that there’s some kind of stumbling block, something that is clouding the optimistic position that the two leaders have adopted over the past 24 hours,” Hanna said.

Shortly before the unscheduled meeting, Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, said the issues keeping Israel and Hamas from agreeing had dropped to one from four, and he hoped to reach a temporary ceasefire agreement this week.

“We are hopeful that by the end of this week, we’ll have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. Ten live hostages will be released. Nine deceased will be released,” Witkoff told reporters at a meeting of Trump’s Cabinet.

But Netanyahu, meeting with the speaker of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, said Israel’s campaign in the Palestinian enclave was not done and that negotiators are “certainly working” on a ceasefire.

“We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate and destroy Hamas’s military and government capabilities,” the Israeli leader said.

Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan, said Israeli media are reporting that Netanyahu is facing “extreme pressure” to reach a deal on Gaza.

“But still, there’s been no breakthrough,” she said from the Jordanian capital, Amman.

“Israeli media is also talking about a delay in the travel plans of Witkoff to Doha, although earlier in the night, he had sounded very optimistic about possibly reaching a deal. Because according to him, only one issue remained problematic – which is, ‘Where will the Israeli army redeploy to?’” Odeh said.

“Now, this is important, because Israel wants to maintain control over the city of Rafah in southern Gaza. According to the Israeli minister of defence, Israel plans to build a tent city in Rafah, where it will concentrate the population, control who enters, not allow anyone to leave, and then push the population out of Gaza to implement, according to the Israelis, the Trump plan of depopulating Gaza and taking over the enclave,” she added.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed at least 57,575 Palestinians and wounded 136,879 others. Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced by the war, and nearly half a million people are facing famine within months, according to United Nations estimates.

An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the Hamas-led attacks of October 7, 2023, and more than 200 were taken captive.

Some 50 captives remain in Gaza, with 20 believed to be alive.

Trump has strongly supported Netanyahu, even wading into domestic Israeli politics by criticising prosecutors over a corruption trial against the Israeli leader on bribery, fraud and breach-of-trust charges, which Netanyahu denies.

In his remarks to reporters at the US Congress, Netanyahu praised Trump, saying that there has never been closer coordination between the US and Israel in his country’s history.

Tehran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi visits Saudi Arabia for the first time after Iran’s 12-day war with Israel.

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) has met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Jeddah in the first visit by a top Iranian official to the Gulf kingdom after Israel’s war with Tehran.

Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Araghchi’s talks with Prince Mohammed and other Saudi officials on Tuesday were “fruitful”.

The visit after the 12-day intense conflict between Israel and Iran, which saw the United States bomb three Iranian nuclear facilities before mediating a ceasefire, suggests that the war did not derail the rapprochement between Tehran and Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia’s official news agency, SPA, said Araghchi and Prince Mohammed “reviewed bilateral relations and discussed the latest regional developments and the efforts being made in that regard”.

“The Crown Prince expressed the Kingdom’s aspiration that the ceasefire agreement would contribute to creating conditions that promote security and stability in the region, emphasizing the Kingdom’s stance in supporting dialogue through diplomatic means as a path to resolving disputes,” SPA said.

It added that Araghchi expressed his gratitude to the kingdom for “condemning the Israeli aggression”.

The top Iranian diplomat also met with Saudi Minister of Defence Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz and Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

Israel launched a massive bombardment against Iran on June 13, without direct provocation, killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists as well as hundreds of civilians.

Iran retaliated with missile barrages that left widespread destruction in Israel.

After the US targeted Iran’s nuclear sites, Tehran responded with a missile launch against a US airbase in Qatar. Shortly after that attack, US President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Iran and Israel.

While Arab countries condemned the attack as a violation of Qatar’s sovereignty, Iran appears to be pushing to repair relations with Gulf states.

Ties between Tehran and Riyadh were strained for years over disagreements around regional conflicts and mutual accusations of spreading instability.

But the two countries agreed to restore formal relations as part of a deal brokered by China in 2023, and top Saudi and Iranian officials have been in regular contact.

Before the outbreak of the recent war, Saudi Arabia had welcomed Iran’s nuclear talks with the US, saying it supported efforts to resolve regional and international disputes.

On Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said he believed Tehran could resolve its differences with the US through dialogue, but trust would be an issue after the attacks on his country.

In an article published by the Financial Times earlier on Tuesday, Araghchi accused Israel of preferring conflict over diplomacy.

“Iran remains interested in diplomacy, but we have good reason to have doubts about further dialogue,” he wrote. “If there is a desire to resolve this amicably, the US should show genuine readiness for an equitable accord.”