The world’s nuclear watchdog has ruled Iran has failed to comply with its nuclear obligations. The crisis comes as the US says it’s reducing staffing at regional embassies as tensions escalate. Soraya Lennie breaks it down.
Published On 12 Jun 202512 Jun 2025
Israel carried out a “major strike” on Iran early Friday morning, hitting a range of targets in the capital, Tehran.
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US officials tell news agencies that Israel has started attacking sites in Iran as blasts reported in Tehran.
Explosions have been reported northeast of Iran’s capital Tehran, according to the state-run news agency Nour News.
The Israeli Air Force has reportedly conducted a strike in Iran, the Axios news agency reports, citing two unnamed sources with knowledge of the operation.
Two unnamed US officials have also told the Reuters news agency that Israel has carried out an attack in Iran. The officials said Washington did not assist in the attack and declined to provide further details.
The Israeli military is yet to publicly confirm the attack. But in a post on X, the military announced that Israel’s civil and public security guidelines had been changed to “essential activity” as of 03:00 local time (00:00 GMT).
“The guidelines include: a ban on educational activities, gatherings, and workplaces, except for essential businesses,” it said.
More to follow shortly …
ISRAEL has launched devastating air strikes against Iran in a dramatic escalation risking all-out nuclear war in the Middle East.
Explosions rung out and plumes of smoke rose above the capital Tehran after a volley of “preemptive strikes” as part of Operation Rising Lion.
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Israel claimed it targeted a nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, and threatened even more to come.
A defence official claimed the strikes killed Iran’s military chief and senior nuclear scientists, although this has not been confirmed.
Tensions had flared following Iran’s advancing nuclear programme, with Donald Trump warning of a “massive conflict” between the enemy nations.
Iran has been stockpiling uranium and it is feared they are close to having enough weapons-grade fusion material for as many as 15 nuclear bombs.
Iran has also been distributing weapons and arms to proxy groups across the region fighting Israel including Hezbollah and Hamas.
The US has already declared it had no involvement in the strikes.
Fearing a reprisal, Israel has already declared a “special state of emergency”, closing schools and public gatherings and sounding air-raid sirens.
Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “Following the State of Israel’s preemptive strike against Iran, a missile and drone attack against the State of Israel and its civilian population is expected in the immediate future.”
The orders have been imposed across the entire state, with air space closed and emergency messages sent to mobile phones ordering Israelis to stay close to shelters and limit movement in open areas.
Speaking after the blitz, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it was a “decisive moment in Israel’s history”.
He said in a video statement the operation “will continue for as many days as it takes to remove this threat”.
He added: “We struck at the heart of Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme… We also struck at the heart of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.”
On Thursday, the UN’s nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency censured Iran for failing to work with its inspectors.
Iran’s nuclear chief, Mohammad Eslami, slammed the resolution as “extremist” and blamed Israeli influence.
It comes after an ex-military intelligence agent chillingly warned that Iran could rush to finish its nuclear weapons if attacked by Israel.
Raz Zimmt, who spent more than two decades in the IDF’s military intelligence, said Iran is likely to immediately retaliate with a huge missile blitz if Israel launches missiles as its turf.
He told The Sun: “The immediate retaliation would probably be the launching of long-range missiles from Iran against Israel if that’s an Israeli attack.”
Trump, whose administration is in talks with Iran in a bid to hammer out a deal over its nuclear programme, said he had urged ally Israel to hold off as he stressed his commitment to a diplomatic solution.
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“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked if an Israeli attack loomed.
Trump said he believed a “pretty good” deal on Iran’s nuclear program was “fairly close,” but said that an Israeli attack on its arch foe could wreck the chances of an agreement.
The US has already pulled some diplomats from Tehran and offered evacuations for troops and families stationed in the Middle East.
US and Iranian officials were due to hold a sixth round of talks on the nuclear programme in Oman on Sunday until the negotiations reached a stalemate.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had claimed the strikes were necessary for self-defence, while warning Iran not to target US forces in retaliation.
There are fears US could get dragged into the conflict if Iran decides to target military bases in the region, over the West’s support for Israel.
In a statement, he said: “Tonight, Israel took unilateral action against Iran. We are not involved in strikes against Iran and our top priority is protecting American forces in the region.
“President Trump and the Administration have taken all necessary steps to protect our forces and remain in close contact with our regional partners.
“Let me be clear: Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
IRAN has been declared as in breach of its nuclear rules for the first time in two decades.
The UN’s atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, passed a resolution on Wednesday condemning Tehran’s “lack of co-operation”.
It is the culmination of several stand-offs between the Vienna-based IAEA and Iran since Trump pulled the US out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that accord unravelled.
Tehran said it “has no choice but to respond to this political resolution”, and said it would launch a new enrichment site “in a secure location”.
The state said: “Other measures are also being planned and will be announced subsequently.”
An IAEA official said Iran had given no further details such as the location of the site.
It comes as US and Iranian officials are due to hold a sixth round of talks on Tehran’s accelerating uranium enrichment programme in Oman on Sunday.
The Trump administration has been trying to secure a deal with Tehran aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear programme.
Donald Trump is said to be in advanced talks with Iran over a preliminary agreement that could include provisions on uranium enrichment – terms Israel finds unacceptable.
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Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has warned that there is a “chance of massive conflict” in the Middle East, confirming that an Israeli attack on Iran is “possible”.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said he would “love to avoid the conflict” and suggested that the US would like Israel to hold off on plans to strike Iran’s nuclear sites while Washington and Tehran continue their negotiations.
“I want to have an agreement with Iran. We’re fairly close to an agreement … I’d much prefer an agreement,” the US president said.
“As long as I think there is an agreement, I don’t want them [the Israelis] going in because I think that would blow it – might help it actually, but it also could blow it.”
Yet, Trump said that an Israeli attack “could very well happen” without elaborating whether the US would participate or assist in any strikes.
His comments came a day after the US pulled some of its diplomats from the region and put its embassies on high alert amid reports of a possible Israeli attack on Iran.
“There’s a chance of massive conflict,” Trump said.
“We have a lot of American people in this area. And I said: We’ve got to tell them to get out because something could happen soon, and I don’t want to be the one that didn’t give any warning, and missiles are flying into their buildings. It’s possible.”
Later on Thursday, the US president reiterated his commitments to diplomacy with Iran. “My entire Administration has been directed to negotiate with Iran,” he wrote in a social media post. “They could be a Great Country, but they first must completely give up hopes of obtaining a Nuclear Weapon.”
US and Iranian officials have held several rounds of talks since April to reach a nuclear deal to avert war.
Trump’s stated position is that Iran will never be allowed to obtain nuclear bombs.
Tehran denies seeking a nuclear weapon, but it stresses that it has a right to domestically enrich uranium – a process of altering the uranium atom to produce nuclear fuel.
But US officials have suggested that Iran must give up its enrichment capabilities to ensure that it cannot militarise its nuclear programme.
Despite the apparent impasse, the talks have continued. US and Iranian officials are scheduled to hold a sixth round of negotiations in Oman on Sunday.
Trump previously expressed optimism about the chances of reaching an agreement.
But tensions spiked in recent days.
Earlier this week, Iran said it obtained a trove of secret documents on Israel’s own undeclared nuclear arsenal.
While Israel has not publicly said that it will attack Iran, the US move to partially evacuate its embassy in Baghdad and pull personnel from diplomatic posts across the Middle East on Wednesday raised concerns that violence could break out.
Moreover, the United Nations nuclear watchdog (IAEA) passed a resolution, put forward by the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany, on Thursday that accused Iran of failing to comply with its nuclear obligations.
Tehran forcefully rejected the measure, accusing Washington and its allies of politically exploiting the international body.
During his first term, in 2018, Trump nixed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which saw Iran scale back its nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions against its economy.
Since then, the US has been piling sanctions on Iran. Tehran has responded by escalating its nuclear programme.
Early in his second term, Trump signed an executive order to tighten sanctions against Iran to choke off the country’s oil exports, particularly to China. But the US president has also stressed repeatedly that he does not want war.
Israel has been claiming for more than 20 years that Iran is on the cusp of obtaining a nuclear weapon.
In recent months, Israeli officials have suggested that they see an opportune moment to strike Iran, after the blows that Tehran’s regional allies suffered last year, including the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
“Israel has never been stronger and the Iran terror axis has never been weaker,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in February.
Iran has been warning that it would retaliate harshly against any Israeli attack.
“Iran is currently at its highest level of military readiness, and if the United States or the Zionist regime attempts any act of aggression, they will be caught by surprise,” an unidentified Iranian official told Press TV on Thursday.
It is unclear whether Israel has the military power to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities, built deep underground and inside mountains, without direct US involvement – the billions of dollars in military aid that the US gives Israel every year notwithstanding.
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza in October 2023, Iran and Israel have exchanged several rounds of attacks.
On June 9, Israeli forces seized the Madleen ship in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea as it attempted to break the suffocating siege on Gaza.
The 12 activists on board – who belong to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition – were abducted in international waters and taken to Israel.
One day after their capture, four of them were swiftly deported after waiving their right to see an Israeli judge and signing a deportation order that claimed they had “illegally” entered Israel. Well-known Swedish climate and human rights activist, Greta Thunberg, was among those deported.
The other eight refused to sign and remained in detention. On Thursday, six of them were deported, including Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament.
Another two French nationals remain in Israeli custody awaiting deportation on Friday, according to Adalah, a nonprofit legal association in Israel.
This is everything you need to know about their treatment.
On Tuesday, Israel deported Thunberg (Sweden), Sergio Toribio (Spain), Baptiste Andre (France) and Omar Faiad (France). Faiad is a reporter with Al Jazeera Mubasher.
On Thursday, six more were deported, including Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian member of the European Parliament, Mark van Rennes (Netherlands), Suayb Ordu (Turkiye), Yasemin Acar (Germany), Thiago Avila (Brazil) and Reva Viard (France), according to Adalah, cited by Turkish news agency Anadolu.
French nationals Pascal Maurieras and Yanis Mhamdi remain in detention and are expected to be released on Friday, according to Adalah. Mhamdi is a journalist for The Blast, a French left-wing outlet.
In Givon prison in Ramla, a city between West Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Two of the activists, Hassan and Avila, were placed in solitary confinement, according to Adalah.
Hassan was taken there after first writing “Free Palestine” on the prison walls. Adalah later reported that Avila began a hunger and water strike to protest Israel’s blockade of Gaza, which has led to widespread starvation.
Hassan was later returned to Givon, said Adalah.
After Thursday’s release of Hassan and Avila, along with four others from the Madleen, Adalah released a statement saying that “volunteers were subjected to mistreatment, punitive measures and aggressive treatment, and two volunteers were held for some period of time in solitary confinement”.
According to Luigi Daniele, a legal scholar at the University of Molise, Italy, Israel has no right to intercept a boat in international waters or to deny aid to starving civilians in Gaza.
On the contrary, Israel has an international legal obligation as an occupying power to facilitate aid into Gaza.
He told a local Italian outlet that Israel, above all, has no legal right to use force or permanent aggression on occupied Palestinian territory, including against the activists who were sailing to Gaza on the Madleen.
Adalah has also argued that the activists were not trying to enter Israel illegally, but were sailing to Gaza, which is occupied Palestinian land.
Israeli courts dismissed the legal arguments made by Adalah.
The Madleen activists are supposed to serve 72 hours in the Israeli prison before being deported back to their home countries, according to Israeli law.
This indicates all activists should have been released at some point on June 12, yet it is unclear if the remaining detainees – Maurieras and Mhamdi – will face additional charges that could keep them longer in prison.
Some have, while others have been curiously silent.
France’s foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, said earlier this week that he expected the four French activists who were on board the Madleen to return to France on Thursday or Friday. As of Thursday, two remained in detention.
Brazil had also demanded the release of Brazilian activist, Avila. When the activists were first abducted from international waters, Brazilian diplomats reportedly visited Givon prison to assist with legal proceedings.
In addition, Turkiye called Israel a “terrorist state” after the Madleen was intercepted.
Germany and the Netherlands, however, did not issue public statements to demand the release of their nationals.
The Madleen’s captain, Mark van Reenes, deported on Thursday, is a Dutch national who filmed himself just before Israel seized the ship.
In the video, he called on his country to urgently demand his release.
UN special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, also posted on X that “the silence of [European Union] institutions over the unlawful detention and punitive conditions imposed on EU citizens including [Hassan] speaks volumes to the deep roots of Israelism in European institutional culture”.
Israel has been pushing to strike Iran for months, if not years. Signs this week that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities was potentially imminent have ratcheted up fears of a regional conflict, particularly in light of the US withdrawal of some diplomatic staff and their dependents from Iraq and the wider region.
US President Donald Trump’s comments have added to the sense that a military confrontation is coming, saying on Thursday that a strike “could very well happen”.
And yet, at the same time, Trump said that he would not call the strike imminent, and wanted to avoid a conflict.
Earlier in the week, Israeli media reported that Trump had also asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to dial down talk of a strike against Iran, adding to the sense that Trump himself wanted to avoid any conflict with Iran, especially as nuclear talks between Iran and the US are ongoing – with the next round set to take place on Sunday.
Whether an Israeli strike will take place in the short term is thus still unclear.
“One way of looking at this is that it may be part of the larger picture,” Yossi Mekelberg, a senior consulting fellow at Chatham House, said of the role the threat of unilateral action from Israel may play in US negotiations with Iran. “It may be that the US is using their ‘crazy friend’ as a tactic to bring pressure upon Iran … On the other hand, it may be that the crazy friend means business.”
Israel’s opposition to Iran is longstanding.
Through the course of its 20-month-long war on Gaza, Netanyahu has seized on the opportunity to confront a foe he has consistently pitched as his country’s ultimate nemesis.
In addition to boasting that he was responsible for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme in 2018, Netanyahu has also ordered air strikes, assassinations and cyberattacks designed to either slow or halt Iran’s nuclear programme.
The Israeli right-wing, led by Netanyahu, has long considered Iran an existential threat and believes that the country seeks a nuclear weapon, despite Iranian denials.
Iran also supports anti-Israeli groups across the region, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthis. With many of Iran’s allies, particularly Hezbollah, severely weakened after fighting Israel since 2023, some in Israel view this as the perfect opportunity to also deliver a knockout blow to Iran itself.
Speaking to the New York Times on Wednesday, a senior Iranian official said that military and government officials have already met in anticipation of a potential Israeli strike.
According to the unnamed official, any strike by Israel would be met with the immediate launch of hundreds of ballistic missiles.
“Logically, and I’m stressing ‘logically,’ Israel shouldn’t strike at Iran,” Mekelberg said, “Even with US support, it likely wouldn’t be a good idea.”
“However, in this environment, there are no voices that are going to restrain Netanyahu: not the foreign minister, not the defence minister,” he said.
“The head of the Shin Bet [domestic intelligence service], who would normally counsel Netanyahu, has been forced out, and the attorney general, who might also advise him, [Netanyahu is] trying to get dismissed,” Mekelberg added. “That leaves no one, perhaps other than some voices in the military and Mossad, that could act as a check on Netanyahu.”
Internationally, both Israel and Netanyahu have become increasingly isolated, throwing their relationship with the US into sharp focus.
In the last few weeks, many Western states have increased their opposition towards Israel’s war on Gaza.
Earlier in the week, five countries – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom – sanctioned two of Netanyahu’s government ministers, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leaving Israel more reliant upon US support than ever, observers said.
“I can’t see Israel taking any action without the US,” Mitchell Barak, an Israeli pollster and former political aide to several senior Israeli political figures, including Netanyahu, told Al Jazeera.
“Something is definitely going on, but I can’t see Israel doing anything without the tacit or active support of the US.”
“This could be a negotiating tactic on the part of Trump. He’s entered negotiations, and he wants results. Now, he sees Iran stalling, the IAEA report condemning them, and suddenly, he’s got Netanyahu threatening to strike if they don’t cut a deal,” he said.
Other observers questioned the timing of both reports of Trump restraining Netanyahu’s threat of strikes, as well as the International Atomic Energy Agency report – which determined that Iran was not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards – falling so close to Sunday’s talks.
“Right now, every taxi in Tel Aviv will tell you that Israel’s about to strike at Iran,” Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli ambassador and consul general in New York, told Al Jazeera. “I may be wrong, but I really doubt it.
“Netanyahu’s unlikely to do anything without the US’s greenlight. It’s not the way he or Israel works,” he said.
“I don’t think that’s going to let up,” Pinkas said of negotiations likely to continue beyond Sunday, “I fully expect Trump to again speak of having to restrain Netanyahu. It’s just another means of exerting pressure on Iran.”
However, that is not to rule out a strike from Israel altogether.
“There may be one, but if there is, it’ll come at the US’s request and be of some peripheral target with no real value.”
Tehran, Iran – Iranian authorities have remained defiant amid concerns that Israel could launch an attack on Iran as the global nuclear watchdog adopts another Western-led censure resolution.
Even as Oman confirmed on Thursday that it will host a sixth round of talks on Sunday between Iran and the United States over Tehran’s nuclear programme, reports by outlets such as The New York Times, quoting officials in the US and Europe, warned that Israel is “ready” to attack Iran, even without military backing from Washington. Israel has long threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites.
The administration of US President Donald Trump also carried out a partial evacuation of embassy staff in Iraq and dependants of US personnel across the Middle East in a sign of escalating tension in the region.
“I don’t want to say imminent, but it looks like it’s something that could very well happen,” said Trump at a White House event on Thursday, commenting on the likelihood of an Israeli strike.
“We will not give in to America’s coercion and bullying,” Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised speech in the western city of Ilam on Thursday, pointing out that Iran resisted eight years of invasion in the 1980s by neighbouring Iraq, which was backed by many foreign powers.
Hossein Salami, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), told state television that if Israel attacks, it would be met with a “history-making” response that would go far beyond Iran’s two rounds of retaliatory strikes on Israel last year.
He said Iran is not “defenceless and encircled” like Gaza, where the Israeli military has killed more than 55,000 Palestinians since October 7, 2023.
Speaking to a crowd in Tehran, IRGC Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani said Iran’s armed forces have made significant strides in improving their attacking capabilities in the months since the previous missile barrages launched against Israel.
“If they think the axis of resistance and Iran have been weakened and then boast based on that, it is all a dream,” said the commander, who leads the external force of the IRGC, which is tasked with expanding Iran’s regional influence.
Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, announced on Thursday that he has given the order to launch more military exercises after a series of large-scale drills were held across Iran earlier this year. An array of missiles and drones, warships, special forces and even underground missile bases featured in those drills.
On Wednesday, Defence Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh reiterated that all US military bases in countries across the region are legitimate targets if conflict breaks out with the US.
He said Iran had successfully launched an unnamed ballistic missile last week with a 2,000kg (4,410lb) warhead and promised casualties “on the other side will be greater and would force the US to leave the region”.
After days of deliberation, the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday passed a resolution to censure Iran over its advancing nuclear programme and several outstanding cases involving unexplained nuclear materials found at Iranian sites.
The resolution was put forward in Vienna by the US along with France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European nations who are still party to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, which Trump unilaterally abandoned in 2018.
The global nuclear watchdog has adopted several Western-led censure resolutions against Iran over the past few years, but the one on Thursday was the most serious in nearly two decades because it alleges Iran is not complying with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations.
Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs branded the accusation “completely baseless and fabricated” and said Western powers are using the international body as a tool for exerting political pressure.
Tehran’s response was also significant. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Foreign Ministry jointly announced that the country would build its third uranium enrichment site at a “secure” location.
They added that first-generation centrifuges will be replaced with sixth-generation machines at the Fordow enrichment plant, which will considerably boost Iran’s ability to create highly enriched uranium.
The Natanz and Fordow facilities, both built deep underground to protect them against bunker-buster munitions used by the US and Israel, are currently the only facilities enriching uranium in Iran. They are both under heavy supervision by the IAEA.
Iran is now enriching uranium up to 60 percent and maintains that its nuclear programme is strictly peaceful and has civilian uses, such as power generation and the manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals. Uranium must be at 90 percent purity to build nuclear weapons.
Iran and the US are once again heading to Muscat even as they still disagree over enrichment, the key issue for any potential agreement.
The 2015 nuclear deal allowed Iran to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent under IAEA monitoring, but Trump, who now says he is less confident about a deal with Iran, has insisted on “zero” enrichment taking place inside Iran.
Tehran, which this week rejected another US proposal that included zero enrichment, is slated to offer a counterproposal soon to try to advance the negotiations.
Ideas for a nuclear consortium that includes Iran’s neighbours to bolster trust have so far failed to provide any breakthrough.
Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer and Mossad chief David Barnea are expected to meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff on Friday before he heads to the Omani capital for the latest round of talks.
In Tehran’s Vanak Square, authorities this week installed a huge sculpture of Arash Kamangir (Arash the Archer), a hero in Iranian mythology.
The story of Arash involved the hero putting his life in danger by climbing Mount Damavand – the highest peak in Iran at 5,609 metres (18,402ft) and a symbol of national pride – to use his archery skills to set Iran’s borders. In the story, his arrow flies for days before setting Iran’s boundaries with Turan, a historical region in Central Asia.
The story is one that evokes a sense of national pride among all Iranians. When images of the sculpture went viral on social media, some Iranians praised the move while others criticised it as an attempt to tap nationalist sentiment at a time when Iran may be attacked.
مجسمه بزرگ ۱۵ متری از آرش کمانگیر امروز در میدان ونک تهران نصب شد. pic.twitter.com/QQBglpxWXO
— Azadeh Mokhtari (@AzadeMokhtari) June 10, 2025
Translation: A 15-metre-high [50ft-high] sculpture of Arash Kamangir was installed at Tehran’s Vanak Square today.
But even with the spectre of war seeming to loom over Iran again, markets in the country have remained relatively stable in recent weeks as they anticipate the results of negotiations with the US.
The Iranian rial changed hands in Tehran for about 840,000 per US dollar on Thursday, having only slightly dipped compared with the days before and its news of more military and political pressure on Iran.
“Most people I’ve spoken to here are following the news of the talks with the US and Israel’s threats very closely, but there’s no panic,” a 36-year-old vendor at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar told Al Jazeera, asking to remain anonymous.
After years of stringent sanctions, along with local mismanagement, Iran has been facing consistently high inflation. It currently stands above 30 percent. Iranians are also cut off from international payment networks and banned from most international services due to the sanctions.
“Nobody wants a war,” the vendor said. “We have enough problems as is. I really hope they reach a deal.”
At least 26 people were killed in Israeli drone strikes while waiting for basic aid distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
Israeli attacks have killed at least 42 people across Gaza since dawn, medical sources told Al Jazeera, as the United Nations General Assembly prepares for a vote urging an unconditional ceasefire in the besieged enclave.
Sources told Al Jazeera that at least 26 of the people killed on Thursday died in Israeli drone attacks while waiting for food and basic supplies being distributed by the controversial United States and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).
Gaza civil defence official Mohammed el-Mougher told AFP news agency that al-Awda Hospital received at least 10 bodies and about 200 others who were wounded “after Israeli drones dropped multiple bombs on gatherings of civilians near an aid distribution point around the Netzarim checkpoint in central Gaza”.
El-Mougher said that Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital also received six bodies after Israeli attacks on aid queues near Netzarim and in the as-Sudaniya area in northwestern Gaza.
Since the GHF began its operation in Gaza in late May, dozens of Palestinians have been killed while trying to reach the aid distribution points, according to Gaza’s civil defence agency.
The previously unknown GHF has come under intense criticism from the United Nations, which says its distribution model is deeply flawed.
“This model will not address the deepening hunger. The dystopian ‘Hunger Games’ cannot become the new reality,” Philippe Lazzarini, the chief of the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), wrote on X.
“The UN including @UNRWA has the knowledge, expertise & community trust to provide dignified & safe assistance. Just let the humanitarians do their jobs,” he added.
Separately, a medical source at al-Shifa Hospital told Al Jazeera that two Palestinians were killed as a result of Israeli shelling targeting the Bir an-Naaja area west of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Hamas condemned on Thursday the decision of Israel to cut off communication lines in Gaza, describing it as “a new aggressive step” in the country’s “war of extermination”.
“We call on the international community to assume its responsibility to stop the aggression and ensure the protection of civilians and humanitarian and civilian facilities.”
The disruption of communications has resulted in the UNRWA losing contact with its colleagues in the agency in Gaza, the UN’s main humanitarian provider in Gaza said.
The latest developments come as the UN General Assembly is set to vote on a draft resolution that demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza.
The 193-member General Assembly is likely to adopt the text with overwhelming support, diplomats say, despite Israel lobbying countries this week against taking part in what it called a “politically motivated, counterproductive charade”.
Last week, the United States vetoed a similar effort in the Security Council.
“Food has become an opportunity for killing, I’ve never heard of such a thing”
Former UN aid chief Martin Griffiths slammed Israel’s killing of Palestinians seeking aid. In an interview with Al Jazeera, he said the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation was luring people to their deaths.
Published On 12 Jun 202512 Jun 2025
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IAEA resolution passes with 19 votes in favour , three against and 11 abstentions, diplomatic sources say.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog’s Board of Governors has approved a resolution declaring Iran is not complying with its commitment to international nuclear safeguards, diplomatic sources told Al Jazeera.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Board of Governors resolution passed on Thursday with 19 votes in favour, three against and 11 abstentions.
Al Jazeera’s Hashem Ahelbarra, reporting from Vienna, said that Russia, China and Burkina Faso were among the members of the 35-seat board to vote against the resolution.
A text of the resolution seen by Reuters news agency said that “Iran’s many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019” to provide IAEA “with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations constitute non-compliance with its obligations” under its agreement with the UN agency.
Ahelbarra described passage of the resolution as a “significant diplomatic development”, noting that it was the first time in almost 20 years that the IAEA had accused Iran of breaching its non-proliferation obligations.
“Iran has a very small window to answer the resolution. Otherwise, it will face, massive, massive repercussions including the potential of further isolation and wide-range of sanctions.”
Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi, reporting from Tehran, said that Iran will likely have a “tough response” to the IAEA resolution, adding that the upcoming talks between the US and Iran on Sunday would be “highly-influenced” by the vote in Vienna.
Iran’s Press TV quoted the foreign ministry as saying that the board resolution “has no technical and legal basis.”
In a speech to Israel’s parliament, the Argentinian leader criticised Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s advocacy for Palestinian rights.
Argentinian President Javier Milei has announced that his country will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem next year, as the populist leader signalled his support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s increasingly isolated government.
Argentina’s embassy is currently located in Herzliya, just outside Tel Aviv. But in a speech to Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, staunchly pro-Israel Milei said he was “proud to announce” his country will move its “embassy to the city of west Jerusalem” in 2026.
“Argentina stands by you in these difficult days,” Milei said.
“Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about a large part of the international community that is being manipulated by terrorists and turning victims into perpetrators,” he told the Knesset.
The Argentinian leader, currently on his second state visit to Israel since taking office in 2023, said Buenos Aires will continue to demand that Israeli captives held in Gaza be released, including four with Argentinian citizenship taken during the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.
Milei also criticised Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, who was detained and deported by Israeli authorities this week after being taken with other activists from a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza.
Thunberg has been a vocal critic of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and deliberate starvation of the territory’s Palestinian population.
“[Thunberg] became a hired gun for a bit of media attention, claiming that she was kidnapped when there are really hostages in subhuman conditions in Gaza,” Milei said, according to a translation of his remarks from Spanish provided by the Knesset.
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, with the overall death toll after more than 20 months of war surpassing 55,000 Palestinians.
Milei had pledged to move Argentina’s embassy during his first visit in February 2024, in which he also prayed at the Western Wall, a revered religious site for Jews in Jerusalem.
Speaking in advance of Milei’s address to parliament this week, Prime Minister Netanyahu said “the city of Jerusalem will never be divided again”.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the most delicate issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict, with Israel claiming the entirety of the ancient city as its capital, while Palestine claims its occupied eastern sector as the site of any future Palestinian state.
Israel first occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Six-Day War, before unilaterally annexing it in 1980 in a move rejected by the United Nations Security Council. Due to its disputed status, the vast majority of the 96 diplomatic missions present in Israel host their embassies in the Tel Aviv area to avoid interfering with peace negotiations.
Currently only six countries – Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay and the United States – have embassies located in West Jerusalem.
During his first term in 2017, President Donald Trump made the shock decision to unilaterally recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital before moving the US embassy there a year later, prompting Palestinian anger and the international community’s disapproval.
This status was not revoked under the Biden administration and Washington continues to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital today.
At least 123.2 million people, or one in 67 individuals worldwide, remain forcibly displaced, according to a report released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) today.
The number of displaced people has increased by seven million people, or 6 percent, compared with the end of 2023. This continues a 13-year trend which has seen a year-on-year increase in the number of displaced people globally.
However, the UNHCR estimated that forced displacement fell in the first four months of this year, to 122.1 million by the end of April 2025.
“We are living in a time of intense volatility in international relations, with modern warfare creating a fragile, harrowing landscape marked by acute human suffering. We must redouble our efforts to search for peace and find long-lasting solutions for refugees and others forced to flee their homes,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi.
Of the 123.2 million total forcibly displaced, 73.5 million are internally displaced within their own countries due to conflict or other crises. This is an increase of 6.3 million compared with 2023. Internally displaced people (IDPs) account for 60 percent of the majority of those who have been forced to flee globally.
In Gaza, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that about 90 percent of the population, or more than two million people, have been displaced by Israel’s continuing assault.
As of 2024, the number of refugees stood at 42.7 million, a decrease of 613,600 from the previous year. Of this number, 31 million are under the UNHCR’s mandate, 5.9 million are Palestinian refugees under the mandate of UNRWA, and another 5.9 million need international protection.
According to the UNHCR, the lower number of refugees in 2024 reflects lower estimates of Afghan and Syrian refugees and updated reporting on Ukrainian refugees. However, the number of Sudanese refugees increased by nearly 600,000 to 2.1 million.
The number of asylum seekers – people seeking protection in another country due to persecution or fear of harm in their home country – waiting for a decision stood at 8.4 million, an increase of 22 percent from the previous year.
This puts the number of displaced people globally at one in 67 people.
In 1951, the UN established the Refugee Convention to protect the rights of refugees in Europe in the aftermath of World War II. In 1967, the convention was expanded to address displacement across the rest of the world.
When the Refugee Convention was born, there were 2.1 million refugees. By 1980, the number of refugees recorded by the UN surpassed 10 million for the first time. Wars in Afghanistan and Ethiopia during the 1980s caused the number of refugees to double to 20 million by 1990.
The number of refugees remained fairly consistent over the next two decades.
However, the invasion of Afghanistan by the United States in 2001 and that of Iraq in 2003, together with the civil wars in South Sudan and Syria, resulted in refugee numbers exceeding 30 million by the end of 2021.
The war in Ukraine, which started in 2022, led to one of the fastest-growing refugee crises since World War II, with 5.7 million people forced to flee Ukraine in less than a year. By the end of 2023, six million Ukrainians remained forcibly displaced.
The number of IDPs has doubled in the past 10 years, with a steep incline since 2020. Conflict in Sudan between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces has triggered the world’s largest displacement crisis, with a total of 14.3 million Sudanese remaining displaced at the end of 2024. This was 3.5 million more people than 12 months prior.
In 2024, more than one-third of all forcibly displaced people globally were Sudanese (14.3 million), Syrian (13.5 million), Afghan (10.3 million) or Ukrainian (8.8 million).
In 2024, 1.6 million refugees returned to their home country.
“However, many of these refugees returned to Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan or Ukraine, despite the fragile situations in each,” Matthew Saltmarsh, UNHCR’s media head, said. “Returns to places in conflict or instability are far from ideal and often unsustainable.”
In 2024, 8.2 million IDPs returned to their area of origin.
The UNHCR estimates that nine in 10 refugees and IDPs returned to just eight countries, which included Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Lebanon, Myanmar, South Sudan, Syria and Ukraine.
“Large IDP returns during the year were also registered in several countries that simultaneously saw significant new displacements, such as the DRC (2.4 million), Myanmar (378,000), Syria (514,000) or Ukraine (782,000),” Saltmarsh said.
“Even amid the devastating cuts, we have seen some rays of hope over the last six months,” Grandi said. “Nearly two million Syrians have been able to return home after over a decade uprooted. The country remains fragile, and people need our help to rebuild their lives again.”
The United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its embassy in Iraq and has authorised “the voluntary departure” of dependants of US personnel from locations across the Middle East, including Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, as regional security concerns rise.
US Central Command (CENTCOM) said in a statement on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had authorised the departure of military dependants in the region and that CENTCOM was “monitoring the developing tension”.
Orders for all nonessential personnel to depart the US Embassy in Baghdad – which was already on limited staffing – was based on a commitment “to keeping Americans safe, both at home and abroad”, the Department of State said.
Speaking on Wednesday evening, US President Donald Trump said the order to move staff out had been given because the region “could be a dangerous place”.
“We’ll see what happens. We’ve given notice to move out, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
Trump then added in reference to Iran: “They can’t have a nuclear weapon, very simple. We’re not going to allow that.”
Uncertainty has been growing in recent days as talks between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme appear to have hit an impasse.
US news broadcaster CBS reported late on Wednesday that US officials have been informed that Israel is “fully ready” to launch an attack on Iran and that Washington “anticipates” that Tehran could retaliate by targeting “certain American sites in neighbouring Iraq”.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Washington, DC, said there have been clear signs in recent days of high-level discussions between senior military officials and the Trump administration amid concern around the ongoing talks with Iran over its nuclear programme.
“Donald Trump has in the last couple of days … expressed his concern that a deal might not be able to be done,” Fisher said.
“Therefore, we are seeing, effectively, the partial evacuation of the embassy in Baghdad with non-military personnel and non-essential staff being moved out. And the voluntary evacuation of other embassies in the region,” he said.
“They’ve done this sort of thing before,” Fisher said, noting the Baghdad embassy was partially evacuated previously over “concerns that the embassy could become a target for Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq”.
“Clearly, there is some concern that the discussions with the Iranians aren’t going well. Or, it could be that this is all designed to put pressure on Iranians. Because, you will remember, that Donald Trump said that if they couldn’t get some sort of deal, then … there could be some sort of military action against the Iranians.”
As reports of US embassy staff and dependants departing the Middle East region emerged, Iran’s mission to the United Nations posted on social media that “Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and US militarism only fuels instability”.
“Threats of ‘overwhelming force’ won’t change the facts,” the Iranian mission said.
“Diplomacy – not militarism – is the only path forward,” it added.
Threats of “overwhelming force” won’t change facts:
Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon, and U.S. militarism only fuels instability.CENTCOM’s legacy of fueling regional instability, through arming aggressors and enabling Israeli crimes, strips it of any credibility to speak on…
— I.R.IRAN Mission to UN, NY (@Iran_UN) June 11, 2025
Separately, Iranian Defence Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh told reporters earlier that he hoped talks with the US would be successful, though Tehran stood ready to respond to any aggression.
“If conflict is imposed on us, the opponent’s casualties will certainly be more than ours, and in that case, America must leave the region, because all its bases are within our reach,” he said.
“We have access to them, and we will target all of them in the host countries without hesitation.”
The next round of talks – the sixth – between the US and Iran on limits to Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for lifting sanctions on the country have been tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, according to reports, and Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, is still scheduled to attend.
A Palestinian man in a red cap walks down the narrow alleyway in Nablus’s old city towards a group of Israeli soldiers, clearly unarmed.
He attempts to talk to the soldiers, who had flooded into the occupied West Bank city in the early hours of Tuesday as part of Israel’s latest military raid – believed to be the largest carried out in Nablus in two years.
The soldiers immediately kick and shove the man – 40-year-old Nidal Umairah – before his brother walks over, attempting to intervene. Gunfire follows, and soon the two brothers are lying dead.
Nidal and his brother 35-year-old brother Khaled were the latest victims of Israel in the West Bank, after they were killed late on Tuesday. It is unclear which brother had initially been detained, but witnesses were adamant that the behaviour of the Israeli soldiers was an unnecessary escalation that led to the deaths of yet more Palestinians.
Ghassan Hamdan, the director of the Palestinian Medical Relief Society in Nablus, was at the scene of the killings.
“There were at least 12 soldiers and they all fired their automatic machine guns at once,” said Hamdan.
After the two men fell to the ground [medics] asked the soldiers if we could treat their wounds. They answered by firing at all of us.”
“We all took cover behind the walls of the old city,” he told Al Jazeera.
Hamza Abu Hajar, a paramedic at the scene, said that the Umairah brother who had initially approached the Israeli soldiers had been trying to go to his house to move his family out and away from the Israeli raid.
“They lifted his shirt up to prove he was unarmed,” Abu Hajar said. “They then started shooting at him, and at us as well.”
The Israeli army said it acted in self-defence after one of the Umairah brothers tried to seize a weapon from a soldier. It said that four soldiers had been injured in the incident.
The raid in Nablus, which lasted more than 24 hours, is the latest Israel has conducted in the West Bank.
Israel has taken advantage of the world’s focus on its own war on Gaza since October 2023 to escalate its land theft and violence in the West Bank.
During that span, Israel has killed at least 930 people in the West Bank, 24 of whom were from Nablus, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Many of these deaths are the result of violent Israeli raids ostensibly aimed at clamping down on Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, but which have resulted in mass destruction and thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes.
According to Hamdan, Israeli troops mainly targeted Nablus’s old city by storming into hundreds of homes in the middle of the night. Dozens of people were also reportedly arrested.
Young people in the city protested by burning tyres and throwing rocks at Israeli troops, yet they were met with heavy tear gas, injuring at least 80 Palestinians in the raid.
In the past, Palestinian protesters have been imprisoned on “terrorism” charges or shot and killed for simply resisting Israel’s occupation by throwing rocks or defying Israeli soldiers.
This time around, the Israelis classified the entire old city in Nablus as a closed military zone for 24 hours. No ambulances or medics were allowed inside to aid distressed residents, said Hamdan.
“Nobody was allowed in or out. Nobody was allowed to make any movement at all. We [as medics] could not enter the area during the entire raid to try and help people in need,” he told Al Jazeera.
During the raid, Israeli troops stormed into several apartments after blowing off door hinges with explosives.
Umm Hassan, a 58-year-old resident who did not want to give her full name, recalls feeling terrified when several Israeli soldiers broke into her home.
About five months ago, her husband passed away from cancer, an illness that also claimed two of her children years ago.
Umm Hassan is also battling cancer, yet she said Israeli soldiers showed her no mercy. They flipped her television on the ground, broke windows and tossed her paintings off the walls and onto the living room floor.
They even vandalised her books by throwing them on the ground, including the Quran.
“I told them to leave me alone. I was alone and so scared. There was nobody to protect me,” Umm Hassan told Al Jazeera.
Another woman, Rola, said that Israeli soldiers stormed into her home two times in the span of six hours during the raid.
When Israeli soldiers returned the second time, Rola said that they attacked her elderly father, hitting him on the head and chest with the butts of their guns.
Rola described her three nieces and nephews – all small children – cowering with fear as Israeli soldiers vandalised and destroyed their home.
“The second time they came to our home, they put us all in a room and we weren’t able to leave the room from 8am until 3:30pm,” said Rola.
“We [Palestinians] always talk about being resilient. But the reality is when Israeli soldiers come into your private home, then you get very scared. It’s natural. We are humans and humans get scared,” she told Al Jazeera.
More than 80 Palestinians received treatment from the Palestine Red Crescent Society during the raid, 25 of them as a result of gunshot wounds.
While Israel says its raid was “precise”, inhabitants of Nablus say that the attack on the city was the latest attempt to intimidate and frighten Palestinians.
“Honestly, what were Israeli soldiers searching for in my home? What did they think they were going to find?” asked Rola. “The reason for their raids [violence] is to uphold the [illegal] occupation.”
20 Palestinian children have been evacuated by the World Health Organization to receive urgent medical treatment abroad. Dr. Alaa al-Najjar and her surviving son are amongst those being evacuated. Her husband and nine other children were killed when an Israeli strike hit their home.
Published On 11 Jun 202511 Jun 2025
By blocking and seizing aid convoys, Israel uses humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war.
The seizure of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters has not deterred other aid convoys from heading towards Gaza. Palestinian-American writer Ahmad Ibsais explains how humanitarian aid has become a politically charged weapon of war.
The Sudanese Armed Forces say they have withdrawn from the area as part of its ‘defensive arrangements’.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have said their fighters have seized a strategic zone on the border with Egypt and Libya, as the regular government-aligned army, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), announced its withdrawal from the area.
The announcements on Wednesday came a day after SAF accused forces loyal to eastern Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar of launching a cross-border attack alongside the RSF, the first allegation of direct Libyan involvement in the Sudanese war.
“As part of its defensive arrangements to repel aggression, our forces today evacuated the triangle area overlooking the borders between Sudan, Egypt and Libya,” army spokesperson Nabil Abdallah said in a statement.
بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
القيادة العامة للقوات المسلحة
تعميم صحفي
الأربعاء ١١ يونيو ٢٠٢٥م
في إطار ترتيباتها الدفاعية لصد العدوان، أخلت قواتنا اليوم منطقة المثلث المطلة علي الحدود بين السودان ومصر وليبيا.
(نصر من الله وفتح قريب)
مكتب الناطق الرسمي باسم القوات المسلحة
General… pic.twitter.com/3o5Z1xDfb0
— القوات المسلحة السودانية (@SudaneseAF) June 11, 2025
Since April 2023, the brutal civil war has pitted SAF chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his erstwhile ally Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who leads the RSF, in a bitter power struggle.
In a statement on Wednesday, the RSF said its fighters had “liberated the strategic triangle area”, adding that army forces had retreated southward “after suffering heavy losses”.
SAF said on Tuesday that Haftar’s troops, in coordination with the RSF, attacked its border positions in a move it called “a blatant aggression against Sudan”.
Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also accused the United Arab Emirates of backing the assault, describing it as a “dangerous escalation” and a “flagrant violation of international law”.
It also described the latest clash as part of a broader foreign-backed conspiracy.
Haftar, who controls eastern Libya, has long maintained close ties with both the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.
While Cairo has supported Sudan’s leadership under Burhan since the war began in April 2023, Khartoum has repeatedly accused the UAE of supplying the RSF with weapons, which the Emirati government has denied.
Tensions between Khartoum and Abu Dhabi escalated in May after drone strikes hit the wartime capital of Port Sudan for the first time since the outbreak of the war.
After the attacks, Sudan severed its diplomatic ties with the UAE and declared it an “aggressor state”.
Since the war began more than two years ago, multiple countries have been drawn in. It has effectively split Sudan in two, with SAF holding the centre, east and north, including the capital Khartoum, while the paramilitaries and their allies control nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.
The fighting has killed tens of thousands and displaced 13 million, including four million who fled abroad, triggering what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Efforts by international mediators to halt the fighting have so far failed, with violence continuing to escalate across the western Darfur region and the Kordofan region in the country’s south.
Wherever Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu looks, trouble seems to be looming.
Criticism of his government’s war on Gaza is mounting, with charges of genocide and war crimes coming from both foreign leaders and former Israeli prime ministers.
Internationally, Israel is looking increasingly isolated, as images of the starvation it is inflicting on Gaza flood global media.
Domestically, Netanyahu faces deep criticism of a war many believe he is only prolonging to stay in power.
Legally, the prosecution in his corruption trial has begun its cross-examination of him, while politically, he is facing a possible collapse of his governing coalition.
Netanyahu has never seemed so embattled in his career, but is this really the end for Israel’s longest-serving prime minister?
Here’s what we know.
Very, and it’s growing.
Netanyahu has long been accused of manipulating the war in Gaza for his political ends, an accusation that gained new momentum since March, when Israel broke the ceasefire with the Palestinian group Hamas, further endangering the captives held in Gaza.
In late May, a poll for Channel 12 television showed a majority of Israelis thought Netanyahu cared more about retaining his grip on power than returning the captives.
Most of the protests held in Israel have focused on the captives taken during the Hamas-led assault of October 7, 2023, and how extending the war for political motivations endangers them.
But recently, a small but significant number of Israelis have also protested against the intense suffering their government is inflicting upon the people of Gaza. In addition to an open letter from the country’s academics denouncing Israel’s devastation of Gaza, a growing number of photographs of Palestinian children are being held by demonstrators as part of wider Saturday night protests against the war in Tel Aviv.
Even members of the military are growing unhappy with the war in Gaza.
As reports of reservists refusing to fight increased, open letters by current and former officers in various divisions appeared, calling for an end to the war.
Two of Israel’s former prime ministers have recently publicly criticised Netanyahu.
Ehud Barak, a former general and prime minister from 1999 to 2001, said in Time magazine that Netanyahu must choose between a deal brokered by United States President Donald Trump to free the captives and end the war, or continuing with his politically motivated “war of deception”.
Ehud Olmert, prime minister from 2006 to 2009, wrote in Haaretz that Israel was guilty of having committed war crimes in Gaza and that: “This is now a private political war.”
“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies as a pastime, and does not engage in mass population displacement,” former general and leader of the Democrats party, Yair Golan, told local radio station Reshet Bet.
He was referring to the stated plans of far-right ministers like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to expel Palestinians from Gaza in order for Israelis to settle it.
Olmert added on Tuesday that Trump should tell Netanyahu that “enough is enough”.
For years, Israel has been divided over the conscription of its ultra-Orthodox youth, who were exempt from military service if they were full-time students in religious schools or yeshivas.
In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the exception could no longer apply, fulfilling a longstanding demand by secular Israelis who protested against the double standard.
But the leaders of the two ultra-Orthodox parties in the ruling coalition, Shas and United Torah Judaism (UTJ), are threatening to collapse the government unless it passes legislation that would override the Supreme Court decision.
It is unclear whether elections would result in a parliament more sympathetic to the ultra-Orthodox, but recent developments, like plans to increase the number of conscription notices to ultra-Orthodox students, have pushed the issue to the fore.
Arab and European leaders have become increasingly vocal in their criticisms of Netanyahu and the war.
However, for now at least, he still has the vital support of the US and President Donald Trump.
In early May, Saudi Arabia and the Arab League slammed Netanyahu after he suggested that expelled Palestinians would be able to settle in Saudi territory.
Later the same month, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, who had all previously supported Israel’s war on Gaza, issued a statement describing the level of human suffering in the enclave as “intolerable”.
Spain and Ireland, which, along with Norway, recognised a Palestinian state in May 2024, have also called for action to be taken against Israel and the Netanyahu government.
The UK, along with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Norway, also announced on Tuesday that they would impose sanctions on Smotrich and Ben-Gvir.
How long Netanyahu will keep Trump’s support, however, is not clear, as speculation that the mercurial US president may be tiring of Netanyahu is widespread and growing.
Netanyahu has been embroiled in multiple corruption investigations since 2019. If he is found guilty, he faces jail, possibly up to 10 years.
His trial, which began in 2020, has faced numerous delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic and, more recently, the war on Gaza, which he is accused of extending and at times exacerbating precisely to avoid his trial.
Critics also say he is extending the war to avoid being held accountable for his government’s failings during the October 7 attack.
Controversy and scandal have followed Netanyahu throughout his political career, and opposition to his rule is growing within Israel and parts of the West, yet he may still survive, observers say.
However, to do so, Netanyahu must retain US support for his government while sustaining a war that Trump appears to want ended.
“I don’t know if Netanyahu can come back from this,” one of his former aides, Mitchell Barak, told Al Jazeera in May.
“There’s a lot of talk about Netanyahu being at the end of his line … They’ve been saying that for years, and he’s still here … but I can’t see any more magic tricks that are available to him.”
Cameron told ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan that applying for arrest warrants for Israeli officials would be like ‘dropping hydrogen bomb’, media report says.
Several United Kingdom lawmakers have criticised the previous government over allegations in a recent media report that former Foreign Secretary David Cameron “privately threatened” to defund and withdraw from the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its plans to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials over alleged war crimes in Gaza.
The report, published on Monday by the UK-based outlet Middle East Eye (MEE), cited sources with knowledge of a phone call Cameron allegedly made to ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan on April 23, 2024, after he had given advance notice of his intention to apply for the warrants targeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.
MEE’s report cited unnamed sources, including former staff in Khan’s office, and had seen minutes of the conversation, claiming that Cameron warned the arrest warrants, which were issued in November that year, would be – in quotes reported by the sources – tantamount to “dropping a hydrogen bomb”, warning that if the ICC went ahead, the UK would “defund the court and withdraw from the Rome Statute”.
Khan reportedly stood his ground, with sources telling MEE that he said afterwards that he did not like “being pressurised”. “I won’t say if it rises to blackmail – I don’t like being threatened,” he reportedly said, adding that the government was “debasing” the UK with its clear attack on the independence of the court and the rule of international law.
Neither Khan nor Cameron, who was prime minister between 2010 and 2016, and now sits in the House of Lords as a life peer, has commented on the report.
Following the report’s publication, Labour Party MP Zarah Sultana said on X that Cameron “and every UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza” should be investigated.
David Cameron — and every UK minister complicit in arming and enabling Israel’s genocide in Gaza — must be investigated for war crimes. https://t.co/YYcsmFg1BN
— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana) June 9, 2025
Scottish National Party MP Chris Law said the allegations were “shocking”, but added the country was “not seeing much better under Labour”.
Shocking that the UK Tory govt tried to undermine the International Criminal Court for investigating those responsible for war crimes in Gaza. However not seeing much better under Labour #GazaGenocide https://t.co/Wd3nK9UkhV
— Chris Law MP (@ChrisLawSNP) June 9, 2025
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP, called for an “independent inquiry into the UK’s role in the Gaza genocide”.
Concerning new allegations, which suggest the last foreign secretary tried to shield Israeli leaders from facing justice for war crimes.
We need an independent inquiry into the UK’s role in the Gaza genocide.https://t.co/JROBHyqtDo
— Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP (@BellRibeiroAddy) June 9, 2025
Zack Polanski, the deputy leader of the Green Party, was cited by MEE as saying: “It’s been clear for all to see that both the former and current government have stood with the oppressors, not the marginalised.”
When the ICC applied for the arrest warrants in May last year, the previous Conservative Party government, a strong backer of Israel, decried the move as “not helpful in relation to reaching a pause in the fighting, getting hostages out or getting humanitarian aid in”.
In July, the new Labour government, led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, dropped the previous Rishi Sunak-led government’s bid to challenge the ICC’s power to seek the warrants, which were issued for Netanyahu, Gallant and three Hamas leaders in November.