Middle East

United States President Donald Trump plans to tout trillions of dollars of Arab investments in the US as a major achievement, but other issues are at stake, says University of Maryland professor Shibley Telhami.

Israel is threatening to further destroy the Gaza Strip unless progress is made in its ceasefire talks with Hamas. Meanwhile, Israel has refused to allow any food to enter Gaza – home to more than 2 million Palestinians – for more than two months.

And despite Israeli objections, Trump may soon be able to reach a deal with Iran on its nuclear program.

Who Killed Shireen? also lifts lid on US attempts to stifle truth about the 2022 killing of veteran Al Jazeera journalist.

Filmmakers behind a new documentary on the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces say they have uncovered the identity of the soldier who pulled the trigger.

Who Killed Shireen?, a 40-minute investigative documentary released on Thursday by Washington, DC-based media company Zeteo, identifies the killer as a 20-year-old Israeli soldier who was on his first combat tour in the occupied West Bank and lifts the lid on attempts by the United States to avoid holding ally Israel accountable for the murder.

Dion Nissenbaum, the executive producer of the documentary, told Al Jazeera that its makers had set out to uncover exactly who was behind the killing – a secret closely guarded by Israel up to now, according to Zeteo – and that they hoped the findings would lead to further investigations by the US.

The administration of former US President Joe Biden had “concluded early on that an Israeli soldier had intentionally targeted her, but that conclusion was overruled internally”, he said.

“We found some concerning evidence that both Israel and the Biden administration had covered up Shireen’s killing and allowed the soldier to get away without any accountability,” he added.

Anton Abu Akleh, Shireen’s brother, said the documentary was “really important” for her family. “I’m sure it will shed more light and prove that she was systematically targeted like other journalists in Palestine by the Israeli army,” he said.

The documentary features exclusive interviews not just with ex-US officials but also former top Israeli officials and soldiers, as well as journalists who knew Shireen personally.

“We hope that people will be reminded of what an icon Shireen was,” said Nissenbaum.

In ‘cold blood’

Abu Akleh was wearing a helmet and a clearly marked press vest when she was killed while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp on May 11, 2022, an act that the Al Jazeera Media Network condemned as a “cold-blooded assassination”.

Investigations into her killing carried out by news agencies, rights groups and the United Nations have all concluded that Abu Akleh was killed – likely deliberately – by Israeli soldiers.

Israel initially tried to deflect blame for the incident and suggested that Palestinian fighters killed the journalist, but it eventually walked back that claim and acknowledged its troops were responsible for her death, saying it was “an accident”.

A year later, Israel’s military said it was “deeply sorry” for the death of Abu Akleh, but said it would not launch criminal proceedings against the soldiers believed to be behind the killing.

The US dropped its request for an Israeli criminal investigation after Israel’s apology.

Abu Akleh’s death shocked the world and focused an international spotlight on Israeli killings of Palestinian journalists.

Reporters Without Borders said on Friday that Israeli forces killed nearly 200 journalists in the first 18 months of Israel’s all-out assault on Gaza, at least 42 of whom were slain while doing their job.

The crushing loss drops Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr down to fourth in the Saudi league ladder, 11 points behind Al-Ittihad in the title race.

Houssem Aouar scored a last-minute goal to help Al-Ittihad complete a comeback and secure a 3-2 win over Al-Nassr, taking them a step closer to clinching the Saudi Pro League title.

Sadio Mane opened the scoring on Wednesday for the home side after three minutes with a low strike.

The Senegal international then assisted Ayman Yahya to make it 2-0 for Al-Nassr in the 37th minute. The goal stood following a VAR review, even though the ball had touched Mane’s hand in the build-up.

Al-Ittihad were the better side after the interval and Karim Benzema reduced the deficit with a header in the 49th minute.

Laurent Blanc’s side equalised after a counterattack, finished off by N’Golo Kante, who slotted the ball into Al-Nassr’s net.

Algeria international Aouar scored the game-winner for Al-Ittihad in added time from close range following a cross by Moussa Diaby.

Al-Ittihad, who can clinch the domestic double after reaching the King Cup final, extended their lead to 71 points, six ahead of Al-Hilal, with four games remaining.

For Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr, now fourth with 60 points, the loss was a setback to their hopes of reaching the AFC Champions League elite next season, with only two teams qualifying from the league after Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia won the continental title last Saturday.

Interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa says Syria holding indirect talks with Israel ‘through mediators’.

Syrian’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa says his government has engaged in indirect talks with Israel in an attempt to ease escalating tensions between the two nations.

The announcement comes after an escalation in Israeli attacks on Syria last week, including a strike that landed just 500 metres (1,640 feet) from the presidential palace in Damascus on Friday.

Israel claimed its most recent air strikes were a response to what it described as threats to the country’s minority Druze community.

“There are indirect talks with Israel through mediators to calm and attempt to absorb the situation so that it does not reach a level that both sides lose control over,” al-Sharaa said, reiterating blame on Israel over what he described as its “random interventions” in Syria.

He also said Damascus was talking to states that communicate with Israel to “pressure them to stop intervening in Syrian affairs and bomb some of its infrastructure.”

There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities.

Al-Sharaa’s remarks come during a landmark visit to Paris, his first trip to a European country since assuming office after he led opposition fighters in a lightning offensive that toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December.

The visit required a special exemption from the United Nations, as al-Sharaa remains under international sanctions due to his previous role as leader of the armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate.

Lifting sanctions

Speaking in Paris after meeting President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace, al-Sharaa called for the lifting of economic restrictions on Syria, stating: “Nothing justifies maintaining sanctions imposed on the previous regimes.”

President Macron said France would consider gradually lifting European Union sanctions if Syria continued along its current path.

“I told the president that if he continues on his path, we would do the same, namely by first progressively lifting European sanctions, and then we would also lobby our American partners to follow suit on this matter,” Macron said.

The European Union has already lifted some restrictions, while other measures targeting individuals and entities are set to expire on 1 June. Sanctions relief in sectors such as oil, gas, electricity and transport remain crucial for Syria, where the World Bank estimates reconstruction of the country could cost more than $250bn.

Despite some easing of sanctions by European countries, the Trump administration has been more reserved in its approach to the new Syrian administration.

Macron revealed that he is urging the United States to delay its planned military withdrawal from Syria, arguing that lifting sanctions should be prioritised as a step towards ensuring long-term stability.

Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, said, “In return, Macron expects Syria’s new government to protect minorities, ensure stability and crack down on what he called terrorist organisations, including ISIS.”

“Sharaa is here to project a reassuring image to France’s Western allies, who have been a little bit wary and are looking to see what direction the new leadership takes,” Butler added.

The United States and the Houthis have agreed to a ceasefire.

The Houthis, who control large areas of Yemen, began attacking Israel and commercial shipping and some US navy vessels in the Red Sea after Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.

In response to Houthi attacks on shipping lanes, the US carried out attacks on the Iran-aligned group in Yemen.

Under the truce deal mediated by Oman, the US will halt its strikes on Houthi sites, and the Yemeni group will stop attacking US ships.

But the agreement does not include a truce in the conflict between Israel and the Houthis.

So, will Israel also stop its attacks? What does this all mean for the acute humanitarian crisis facing Yemenis?

Presenter: James Bays

Guests:

Maysaa Shuja al-Deen – Senior researcher, Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies

Ahmed al-Ashwal – Political and military analyst

Nabeel Khoury – Former US diplomat and former US deputy chief of mission to Yemen

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa to Paris, in his first trip to Europe since taking office in January. Al-Sharaa will discuss post-war reconstruction and economic cooperation while France restates its support for a free and stable Syria.

Amid Gaza’s worsening fuel crisis under the Israeli blockade, Palestinians are converting plastic into diesel to try and keep essential services running. The production process is dangerous to humans and vehicles alike.

Israel’s far-right government has approved a “plan” to carve up and ethnically cleanse Gaza, analysts told Al Jazeera.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan, couching it in claims that its goal is to dismantle Hamas and retrieve the 24 or so living captives taken from Israel on October 7, 2023.

Asserting that the “powerful operation in Gaza” was necessary, he went on to emphasise that “there will be a movement of the population to protect it.”

Here’s what you need to know:

What is this ‘plan’?

Israel will expel hundreds of thousands of hungry Palestinians from the north of Gaza and confine them in six encampments.

It says food will be provided to the Palestinians in these encampments, and that it will allow aid groups and private security contractors to distribute it. Palestinians will be forced to move – or starve.

Some 5,000 to 6,000 families will be pushed into each camp, according to The Washington Post. Each household will send someone to trek miles to pick up a weekly food parcel from what the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Jan Egeland called “concentration hubs”.

It is unclear how the rest of the population – possibly some 1.5 million people – will eat.

Israel says it will use facial recognition to identify people picking up food parcels, to deny aid to “Hamas” – yet Israel treats every fighting-age male as a Hamas operative.

The private security companies from the United States would also guard within the designated areas.

Experts and UN agencies are decrying the plan as impractical and inhumane.

What does this mean for the people of Gaza?

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues, and Palestinians will continue to suffer.

Since Israel began its war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, it has cloaked its mass expulsions in what it claims are humane “advance warnings” in which families have mere hours to pack their belongings and flee to a zone Israel determines. Israel often bombs those safe zones anyway.

“If you are viewing this plan through aid distribution, it makes no sense,” Diana Buttu, legal scholar and former adviser to the Palestine Liberation Organization, told Al Jazeera.

“If you view it through a political project, which is ethnic cleansing and cantonisation by using food as a weapon of war, then this plan does make sense,” she said, adding that the “plan” is consistent with Israel’s aim of carrying out a genocide in Gaza.

What did the people of Gaza say?

That they are afraid, and starving, after two months of Israel blocking all aid and regular shipments of food.

“If there is a plan to expand the war and reoccupy Gaza and repeat the displacement, why were we allowed to return to the north again?” Noor Ayash, 31, asks.

“What more does Netanyahu want? We’re dying in every way.”

Mahmoud al-Nabahin, 77, who has been displaced for the past 18 months, says Netanyahu’s threats are meaningless.

He has lost everything; Israel killed his wife and daughter in a raid months ago, and their home and farm are gone.

“[This] means nothing but our annihilation. We’ve lost all hope. Let him do whatever he wants,” he says from his tent in Deir el-Balah.

“We don’t have weapons. We’re civilians left in the wind. People will refuse displacement, but will be forced by the army.”

What does Israel want?

They want to finish their genocide under the guise of facilitating food aid and rescuing Israeli captives, Omar Rahman, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said.

“Israel has been telegraphing its real intentions from the start of this campaign: Destroy Gaza and eliminate its population both by starvation and mass killing,” he said.

Israel’s “plan” signals its intent to starve Palestinians who resist being expelled from north Gaza, said Heidi Matthews, a legal scholar at York University, Canada.

“It is inconceivable that the population can be adequately provided for … whilst being crowded into southern Gaza,” she said.

“This indicates the genocidal intent to inflict on the Palestinian population of Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Can Israel even manage this?

Not clear.

Israel plans to hire two US private security firms, Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, to provide security and possibly help with food distribution.

The first is headed by Phil Riley, a former CIA intelligence officer. The second is run by Jameson Govoni, a former member of the US Army Special Forces.

These companies could give Israel plausible deniability if abuses or atrocities occur, said Mairav Zonszein, an expert on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group.

She added that Israel will also call up thousands of reservists to maintain a physical occupation over northern Gaza, despite many soldiers being fatigued by war and financial troubles.

“There is definitely a lower … turnout among reservists than at the start of the war. But that doesn’t mean there is actually a manpower shortage,” Zonszein told Al Jazeera.

In addition, she noted, despite Israeli society opposing expanding the war on Gaza without first retrieving the captives, Netanyahu is more concerned with appeasing far-right ministers in his coalition by fighting on.

Netanyahu risks losing power and standing trial for corruption charges if the coalition collapses.

Are aid agencies on board?

Not UN agencies.

A UN spokesman said Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “alarmed” by Israel’s plan and that it will “inevitably lead to countless more civilians killed and the further destruction of Gaza”.

“Gaza is, and must remain, an integral part of a future Palestinian state,” said spokesman Farhan Haq.

The UN also issued a statement saying Israel’s plan for Gaza would “contravene fundamental humanitarian principles” and deepen suffering for civilians.

But the UN may conclude that it must participate in Israel’s scheme out of fear that even more Palestinians in Gaza will starve if it doesn’t, said Buttu, putting the onus on Western states, who primarily fund UN agencies, to support the UN’s position by sanctioning Israel.

Walt Disney Company has announced it’s developing a theme park for the first time in 15 years in what will be its seventh resort worldwide. Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates has been chosen as the location

The Walt Disney Company has announced that it is developing a new theme park for the first time in 15 years.

The House of Mouse will build the new resort in Abu Dhabi, marking the company’s entry into the Middle East with what will be its seventh global destination.

Here is everything we know about the new park so far.

When will the park open?

Miral, an Abu Dhabi company, has been brought onboard to fully develop, build and operate the resort with Disney Imagineers leading creative design and operational oversight. Disney has said that the park will open in the early 2030s.

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What will be in the park?

Details so far are quite scant, however, the initial project plan includes one theme park and an unknown number of hotels.

The resort will be located on Yas Island, where Miral has developed other resorts, including SeaWorld YAS Island Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, and Warner Bros. World. The Island is within a 20-minute drive of downtown Abu Dhabi and a 50-minute drive from Dubai.

Disney has said the park will be like a living “Tomorrowland” and its most technologically advanced park to date. That said, it will have a classic castle, as all Disney’s resorts do. Artistic renderings of the building suggest it will be made of a crystal-like structure.

CEO Bob Iger told ABC’s Good Morning America that it will be “the most technologically advanced theme park that we’ve ever built.”

The Abu Dhabi resort will be Disney’s first to sit directly on a waterfront in a way that will be accessible to guests. Advances in immersive gaming will also play a major part in the resort’s attractions.

“Every time we open a new experience or a theme park… it’s really important not just to take a theme park that might exist somewhere else and plop it into the ground in that new area that we would be going into,” Josh D’Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, told CNN. “And so here in, in Abu Dhabi, we want the same thing.”

Why is Disney expanding its parks into the Middle East?

Theme parks are a growing part of Disney’s income. Despite being best known for its original output—films—Disney currently makes 59% of its operating income from parks.

In the US so far this year, attendance is up and revenue is growing as well. Things are a little trickier in Asia however, with attendance falling significantly in Shanghai and Hong Kong in the first quarter, perhaps as relationships with the US sour.

Against a backdrop of economic uncertainty caused in no small part by Donald Trump’s aggressive tariffs, the cost of construction is likely to rocket in the US in accordance with the price of raw materials such as steel. Abu Dhabi may be less impacted by such price rises.

Disney hasn’t announced a new theme park since its 2010 Shanghai Disneyland news, with today’s announcement coming one month after Universal unveiled plans to build its seventh resort in Bedfordshire.

It’s clear why Disney has chosen Abu Dhabi as the location. Both the UAE’s capital and Dubai have large airports that connect to a third of the world’s population in four hours, including the 1.4 billion people living in India. D’Amaro said a potential 500 million people in the region have the means to visit a Disney theme park.

“There was no question that for our seventh resort, this is where it was going to be,” D’Amaro said.

The park will be more than 8,000 miles away from Anaheim, California – the site of the first Disneyland that opened 70 years ago.

Donald Trump pushed out his National Security Advisor Mike Waltz because he was reportedly talking to Israeli PM Netanyahu about bombing Iran. Does this mean Trump is serious about diplomatic reconciliation with Iran? Soraya Lennie explains.

Since Sunday, Port Sudan has been the target of drone attacks that the army has blamed on the Rapid Support Forces.

Explosions have been heard at the Port of Sudan, a critical lifeline and entry point for aid, as attacks on the city continued for a fourth day in the latest confrontation between Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in the country’s brutal two-year civil war.

The attacks have been blamed on the RSF by Sudan’s army and by residents.

On Wednesday morning, an army source told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that the explosion was due to a drone attack that was met with “anti-aircraft missiles”.

The Port of Sudan on the Red Sea coast had been a haven city hosting hundreds of thousands of displaced people since the war began and serves as an interim seat for Sudan’s military-allied government, which has been at war with the RSF since 2023.

The attacks on Port Sudan have increased fears of disruptions to desperately needed aid deliveries in the country suffering one of the world’s most dire humanitarian crises, and where famine has been declared in some areas.

Nearly all aid into Sudan flows through Port Sudan, which the United Nations called on Tuesday “a lifeline for humanitarian operations”, warning of more “human suffering in what is already the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”.

Drone attacks

Attacks on Port Sudan began on Sunday after drone strikes were blamed on the RSF. The latest attacks come after the RSF targeted the airport, the port and the hotel in the city on Tuesday, a military official said. The paramilitary group has not commented on the attacks on Port Sudan.

Sudan’s Information Minister Khalid Aleiser visited the southern part of the port on Tuesday and slammed the United Arab Emirates, whom he accused of arming the RSF. “We will continue our legitimate battle,” he said.

Defence Minister Yassin Ibrahim announced that the government was severing diplomatic ties with the UAE, including withdrawing its ambassador and shutting its embassy in the Gulf country.

“The entire world has witnessed, for more than two years, the crime of aggression against Sudan’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens by the UAE, acting through its local proxy, the terrorist RSF militia,” Ibrahim said. The UAE has long rejected claims of its support for the RSF and condemned the attack.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) dismissed a case on Monday brought by Sudan accusing the UAE of breaching the UN Genocide Convention by arming and funding the rebel paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s deadly civil war.

The top United Nations court said it “manifestly lacked” the authority to continue the proceedings and threw out the case.

Israeli Prime Minister says Palestinians in Gaza will be relocated to the south during a ‘new phase’ of intense military operation, with reports suggesting that Israel is considering occupying the entire enclave and taking control of aid distribution.

Beirut, Lebanon – More than five years into an economic crisis that sent inflation spiralling and saw the Lebanese lira plummet, Lebanon’s government is facing its biggest infrastructure project in years: Post-war reconstruction.

After 14 months of war with Israel, Lebanon needs $11bn to rebuild, according to World Bank estimates.

But, experts say, donors do not trust the Lebanese political class, which has a track record of funnelling construction contracting money to politically connected businessmen.

The needs

In addition to more than 4,000 deaths, the war took a vast material toll on the country already reeling from a multi-year economic crisis.

About 10 percent of the homes in Lebanon – some 163,000 units – were damaged or destroyed, to say nothing of the more than $1bn in infrastructure damage.

Most observers, and the new government formed in February, say Lebanon will again need foreign aid, as it did after a previous war with Israel in 2006.

But that aid has been slower to arrive than in 2006, with donor attention divided between Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, and major donors like the United States pushing for the Hezbollah group’s disarmament as a precondition.

Hezbollah, until recently the most powerful political and military force in the country, suffered severe blows during the war and has seen its power curtailed, although many Lebanese continue to support it.

The country’s south, east, and Beirut’s southern suburbs bore the brunt of Israel’s offensive. Together, they are home to most of Hezbollah’s constituents, so restoring their homes and livelihoods is a priority for the party.

That translates into leverage for foreign donor states.

The problem

Politically connected companies overcharged the state’s main infrastructure buyer, the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR), by 35 percent between 2008 and 2018, a 2022 study by local think tank The Policy Initiative found.

And the primary contracting regulation was so riddled with exceptions that as little as 5 percent of tenders were under the Central Tenders Board’s oversight.

All that came to a head in 2020, when a huge blast in Beirut’s port tore through much of the capital and donors decided they wanted nothing to do with the state, according to Khalil Gebara, economist and former World Bank consultant who previously advised the Lebanese government.

“Donors stopped transferring money to national authorities or to the treasury,” he said, because they had “a total lack of trust in national mechanisms”.

Instead, donors controlled spending directly or via a World Bank-managed trust fund, or worked through NGOs, Gebara added.

That year, the state, which was stalling on implementing International Monetary Fund conditions in exchange for a partial bailout, spent just $38m on its physical investments, down from more than $1.1bn in 2018, the year before the economic collapse, according to Ministry of Finance data.

Trying for solutions

A year later, Lebanon passed what many considered a landmark reform to state contracting, one of the few reform laws passed in recent years.

It dragged virtually the entire public sector into one unified framework, abolished a classification system that had frozen out contractors without political connections, and created a new regulator – the Public Procurement Authority (PPA).

As crisis-ridden state agencies were corralled into the new system, public investment continued to fall, hitting below $10m in 2022.

“Procurement is going to be a big thing … and absolutely the test for the procurement system and for the regulatory authority,” said Lamia Moubayed, head of an in-house research and training institute at Lebanon’s Finance Ministry.

Rana Rizkallah, a procurement expert at the same institute, says the law is solid, but it’s up to the government to implement what it promised, adding that a crucial part of that is staffing the regulator.

The PPA is supposed to be a board of five members backed by a team of 83 staffers but, three years after the law went into effect in 2022, it has a single member and five employees overseeing 1,400 purchasing bodies.

A four-member complaints board that the law established also has yet to be formed, so complaints still go to Lebanon’s slow, overburdened courts.

Jean Ellieh, the regulator’s president and sole member, says the state doesn’t have the “logistical capacity” to recruit dozens of regulators in one fell swoop, but he’s put in a request for new hires.

“We will work with determination and resolve, regardless of our capabilities,” Ellieh told Al Jazeera. “We will not give anyone an excuse to evade the application of the law.”

He added that donors have expressed “satisfaction” with the PPA’s abilities.

Bonanzas to the well-connected

After several lean years in which the state had to keep spending to a bare minimum, the contracting scene remains dominated by the large companies that built up enough resources from earlier rounds of investment to stay afloat.

Wassim Maktabi, economist and co-author of the 2022 report on cartel behaviour in construction contracting, said it would be a tall order to ensure that reconstruction isn’t another bonanza for the well-connected.

“Rest assured that these political elites will not let this slip,” he said.

In addition, years of high-value contracts mean politically connected firms have accumulated the capital to be, in most respects, bigger and more experienced than competitors.

“Even if political influence was not a factor and you awarded these contracts purely based on merit,” he said, these firms “would still get a large piece of the pie”.

Regardless, Maktabi says, reconstruction is simply too important to stall in pursuit of perfection.

Al Jazeera has identified 152 reconstruction contracts totalling more than $30m that are already under way, via the PPA’s online portal. Of the top four contract winners in dollar terms, two have political connections mentioned in media reports.

The top four companies, Beta Engineering and Contracting, Elie Naim Maalouf Company, Al Bonyan Engineering and Contracting, and Yamen General Trading and Contracting, have won contracts totalling $10.6m, $4.7m, $1.8m, and $1.4m, respectively – 60 percent of the total amount awarded in the PPA contracts examined.

Pushing for reformist credibility

The new government is negotiating with the World Bank on a $980m plan, known as LEAP, to kick-start reconstruction and be funded by a World Bank loan and foreign assistance.

But LEAP would only take care of a fraction of the total reconstruction costs.

The government also started hiring for a long-stalled electricity regulatory board and new faces on the CDR board.

Moubayed says refreshing the CDR board is a World Bank requirement to approve LEAP, which would be a vital win for a government pushing to gain reformist credibility.

The World Bank declined to comment on whether refreshing the CDR board is a requirement.

It’s still unclear how the programme might be structured, but the government has endorsed the creation of a trust fund for post-war reconstruction, “characterised by transparency”.

But, Beirut residents were unhappy with a similar model used in 2020 for the Port blast reconstruction, architect and urbanist Abir Saksouk of Public Works Studio says.

A lack of equity between residents, based on which organisation took over repairing each area, further eroded a sense of shared citizenship, she says, calling it an experience that shouldn’t be repeated.

She is one of many calling for an inclusive reconstruction process led by all stakeholders, including people who have suffered damages, and with the involvement of relevant ministries, because they are a vital part of the process.

“We need a reconstruction framework where state institutions are present… But we also need other representation,” she said.

Oman says it brokers truce between Washington and Houthis, says neither side will target the other.

President Donald Trump has announced the United States is abandoning its daily bombing campaign of Yemen based on an understanding with the Houthis as Oman confirms that it has brokered a ceasefire between Washington and the armed group.

“The Houthis have announced to us that they don’t want to fight any more. They just don’t want to fight, and we will honour that, and we will stop the bombings,” Trump told reporters in the White House on Tuesday during a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

Trump claimed that the Iran-aligned Yemeni group “capitulated” and has promised not to carry out attacks on shipping. It launched those attacks in October 2023 shortly after the war in Gaza started, saying the attacks were in support of Palestinians.

“I will accept their word, and we will be stopping the bombing of Houthis, effective immediately,” the US president said.

Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said the two sides have agreed to a ceasefire.

“Following recent discussions and contacts conducted by the Sultanate of Oman with the United States and the relevant authorities in Sana’a, in the Republic of Yemen, with the aim of de-escalation, efforts have resulted in a ceasefire agreement between the two sides,” he wrote in a post on X.

“In the future, neither side will target the other, including American vessels, in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab Strait, ensuring freedom of navigation and the smooth flow of international commercial shipping.”

Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a member of the Houthis’ Supreme Political Council, wrote in a post on X that “Trump’s announcement of a halt to America’s aggression against Yemen will be evaluated on the ground first.”

“Yemen operations were and still are a support for Gaza to stop the aggression and bring in aid,” he added, suggesting that the group would not halt its attacks on Israel.

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said that the US State Department clarified that the agreement did not relate to the conflict between Israel and the Houthis.

“It was made very clear by the US State Department that the deal relates directly to Houthi operations in the coast of Yemen, specifically in regard to US shipping,” he said.

The ceasefire announcement comes hours after the Israeli military launched air strikes on the airport in Sanaa, inflicting devastating damage and rendering it inoperable.

Dozens of Israeli warplanes also launched several waves of large-scale overnight strikes on Yemen’s vital port of Hodeidah in what Israel said was a response after the Houthis hit the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport with a ballistic missile.

The US military has been launching daily air strikes across Yemen for nearly two months, destroying infrastructure and killing dozens of people, including children and civilians.

Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem said it was “possible” that Iran helped to convince the Houthis to de-escalate their attacks.

“The Omanis have also been the main mediators between the US and Iran, and now the Houthis and the Americans. There are indications that the nuclear talks are advancing, with a framework shaping over sanctions lifting in exchange for nuclear restrictions,” he said.

“It is possible that the Iranians have helped in convincing the Houthis to de-escalate, especially if we see this reflected on the Iranian-American talks. It could have been an incentive for the nuclear talks to be done quicker.”

Israel’s military unleashed a second wave of attacks on Yemen, claiming to have “fully disabled” Sanaa’s airport in response to a Houthi missile that targeted Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Sunday.

It has been 19 months now since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza. The International Court of Justice is investigating a “plausible genocide”, while the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes. Scholars of genocide, major human rights organisations, and United Nations experts have identified what is going on in Gaza as genocide. People across the world have marched to call on their governments to act to stop it.

There is a single power that stands in the way of putting an end to this genocide: the United States. One administration has handed over to another, and yet there has been no change in policy. Unconditional support for Israel seems to be a doctrine that the US political establishment is unwilling to touch.

Various analyses have suggested that at the root of this “special relationship” are Judeo-Christian values and a shared democratic path; others have argued that it has to do with the two-party system and the donor class dominating US politics.

But the reality is far simpler. The US views Israel as a critical ally because it helps promote US global supremacy at a time when it is facing inevitable decline. Israel’s survival in its current settler-colonial form – the US elites believe – is closely tied to maintaining US supremacy.

The supremacy of US empire

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the US has been leading a unipolar world as the sole superpower.

As a continuation of Western imperial global dominance, the US empire holds much sway over global economic, political, and cultural matters, often with devastating consequences for the lives of millions of people around the world.

Like all empires, the US solidifies and expands its position of supremacy and hegemony in the world through its overwhelming military force. Through the US infrastructure of organised imperial violence, it is able to secure access to and control of resources, trade routes, and markets. This, in turn, guarantees continuous economic growth and dominance.

But in recent years, we have seen signs that US supremacy is being challenged. The momentum to do so built up in the aftermath of the 2008-2009 US financial crisis, which turned into a global one. It demonstrated the negative impact of US supremacy on the world economy and motivated powers such as China and India to take action to protect themselves from it. The BRICS coalition of economies emerged as their shared response on the economic front.

In the following years, various US foreign policy mishaps, including the US failure in Afghanistan, its waning influence in Africa and its inability to prevent the Russian invasion of Ukraine, also demonstrated the limits of US global power.

The rise of US President Donald Trump and far-right populism in the United States reflected the fact that cracks were appearing in the very core of the US-led so-called liberal order.

No empire has ever easily accepted its decline, and neither will the US. It intends to hold onto its status as the unquestionable superpower, and for that, it needs imperial outposts to stand loyally by its side.

Israel – the most reliable imperial ally

Throughout the Cold War, Western Europe and Israel stood as the US’s junior partners in its confrontation with the Soviet Union in Europe and the Middle East. Today, while the decades-old transatlantic alliance seems to somewhat falter, the US-Israeli relationship appears as strong as ever.

Israel has demonstrated loyalty as an imperial outpost. It has played a key role in supporting US imperialism in two ways.

First, Israel helps the US secure its access to and control over one of the most critical markets for any empire: the energy market. The Middle East is an important force in the global energy trade, and its oil and gas policies can have a tremendous impact on the world economy.

What the US fears the most is losing its dominance in the global energy markets to a competing power, which is why it wants to secure its interests by establishing a regional order in the Middle East that overwhelmingly favours its imperial power. This new order is about giving the US a major advantage over any competitor seeking to make inroads into the region, namely China.

For the administration of former US President Joe Biden and its successor, the Trump administration, the Israeli genocide of Palestinians and aggression against neighbouring countries are about establishing this new security reality in the region by eliminating hostile groups and governments. That is why US support for them has not stopped.

Second, Israel plays a critical role in advancing US military supremacy. The US provides Israel with billions of dollars in aid, which is in fact a form of self-investment in developing military capabilities and expanding sales. The Israeli state uses these funds to buy weapons from US arms manufacturers, which then use Israel’s deployment of that weaponry in the Middle East as testing and marketing tools. The US military-industrial complex is thus able to sell more weapons and continue to innovate and grow to ensure the US has a military edge over its rivals.

In this sense, Israel is one of the most critical parts of the US imperial machinery. Without it, the US would find it challenging to maintain its imperial power in the Middle East. It is for this reason that Biden once famously proclaimed that if Israel did not exist, the US would have to invent it.

Free Palestine and global decolonisation

Over the past year, we have witnessed an unprecedented attack on the Palestine solidarity movement in the US, which has affected all public spheres, including education and healthcare. We have also seen an intensification of US threats against states, such as South Africa, for their support for Palestine.

Based on the magnitude of the resources and energy that the US empire expends on the elimination and subjugation of Palestinians, one has to wonder, what is it about a stateless people with no economic and diplomatic capital or military power that terrifies the world’s sole superpower?

The answer is that the US empire views a free Palestine as the beginning of its own end.

The US is actively working to prevent the world from doing the right thing and isolating the Israeli state economically and politically because it fears what may come next. Such isolation would make it difficult for Israel to continue its existence as a settler colonial project, and ultimately could lead to a decolonisation process. The end result of that would be Palestinians and Israelis living together under a new decolonial political system that would be integrated into the region and would no longer serve imperial power.

A decolonised entity in Palestine/Israel would be a major step in the decolonisation of the world order itself and its liberation from US imperial power. And this is what the US dreads.

In this sense, it is in the self-interest of the overwhelming majority of the world’s nations to follow this path. The future of Palestinians, who are facing the real threat of elimination and total subjugation today, depends on this. And the future of many other nations, if they wish to avoid the current unspeakable brutalities that Palestinians are facing all on their own, also depends on this.

As much as the US needs a settler colonial Israel to stave off its decline, the world, particularly the Global South, needs a decolonised Palestine to hasten US decline. Palestine, not just metaphorically but literally, stands in the way of US and Western imperialism’s onward march towards continued global supremacy.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

Israeli army claims ‘fully disabling’ the civilian facility, saying it also hit a concrete factory and power stations.

Israel has hit the main international airport of Yemen’s rebel-held capital Sanaa, “fully disabling” the civilian facility, according to the Israeli army.

Tuesday’s attacks that also targeted a concrete factory and several power stations in and around Sanaa came in response to Sunday’s ballistic missile strike near Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport, the Israeli military statement said.

The army claimed that “the airport served as a central hub for the Houthi terrorist regime to transfer weapons and operatives”.

“The operation was approved by the Commander of the Air Force and the Chief of Staff,” it said. The military added that it would “continue to act and strike with force” any group that poses a threat to Israel.

Reporting from Sanaa, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed al-Attab said the results of the attacks were not yet clear.

“So far, we don’t know the impacts of this aerial bombardment on Sanaa International Airport or on the power station. We haven’t yet received any reports about casualties or impacts on the infrastructure,” he said.

‘Pure vandalism’

Sultan Barakat, a professor in public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar, says Sanaa International Airport is “not a big strategic target” and that Israeli claims it is being used to receive supplies from Iran are “simply not true”.

“I think it’s pure vandalism, to be honest. The airport in Sanaa is not a normal airport. It’s under a huge restriction from the United Nations, from the Saudis, from the coalition – it’s under sanctions,” Barakat told Al Jazeera.

He added that attacking the airport will only hinder the operations of the United Nations and humanitarian agencies in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Footage of the aftermath of the airport attack, verified by Al Jazeera’s Sanad fact-checking unit, shows large clouds of dark smoke rising into the air over the capital.

Earlier, the Houthi-affiliated Al Masirah TV confirmed that among the sites targeted is a cement factory to the north of the capital and a power station in the Bani al-Harith area.

The attacks come less than 24 hours after Israel bombed the country’s key Hodeidah port, killing at least one person and wounding 35 others.

The Houthi media office said at least six strikes hit the crucial Hodeidah port. Others hit a cement factory in the district of Bajil, 55km (34 miles) northeast of Hodeidah, the group added.

The Israeli military said the strikes sought to undercut the Houthi military industry, claiming the factory is an “economic resource” for the Houthis and “used to build tunnels and military infrastructure”.

Since November 2023, the Houthis, also known as Ansar Allah, have launched more than 100 drone and missile attacks targeting vessels they said are linked to Israel in the Red Sea. The group says that it acts in support of the Palestinians in Gaza and that its attacks will stop only when there is a permanent ceasefire in the enclave.

Although the Houthis paused attacks during a fragile ceasefire in Gaza this year, they resumed their operations after Israel cut off humanitarian aid to Gaza and resumed its offensive in March.

The United States military under US President Donald Trump has launched an intensified campaign of air strikes on war-torn Yemen since March 15.

Israel has repeatedly struck Yemen, killing dozens of people, including women and children.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Drones believed to have been launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces are said to have struck fuel depot causing huge fire: Reports

Multiple explosions have been heard and a huge fire seen in Port Sudan, though the exact locations and causes were unclear, as Sudan’s civil war rocks the previously quiet city for the third day.

Dark plumes of smoke could be seen emerging from the vicinity of the country’s main maritime port in the city, where hundreds of thousands of displaced people have sought refuge.

Al Jazeera’s Hiba Morgan, reporting from the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, said residents in the port city reported that attack drones launched by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) hit a fuel depot and other targets.

“According to the residents, they believe that it was drone strikes by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces – once again. They targeted a fuel depot in the city but also around the port and the air base,” Morgan said.

The conflict between Sudan’s army and the RSF has created the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, one likely to be worsened by these latest attacks on Port Sudan, where the United Nations and aid agencies, as well as army-aligned government ministries, have set up headquarters.

Attacks on the Red Sea coastal city, which began on Sunday, represent a sharp escalation in fighting, as Port Sudan had remained untouched by ground or air attacks until this week.

On Sunday, a military base in the city, near the country’s only functioning international airport, was struck by drones, which was followed by the targeting on Monday of fuel depots in the city. In both cases, military sources blamed the RSF.

The attacks came after a military source said the army had destroyed an aircraft and weapons depots in the RSF-controlled Nyala airport. The RSF did not claim responsibility for the attacks.

The attacks this week drew condemnation from neighbours Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as expressions of concern from the UN.

The war between the army and RSF began in April 2023, triggered by a dispute over a transition to civilian government.

The conflict has displaced more than 12 million people in Sudan and pushed half the population into acute hunger, according to the UN.