Palestinian

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Marco Rubio has revoked the visas of a number of Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization officials ahead of next month’s annual high-level meeting of the U.N. General Assembly, where the groups previously have been represented.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that Rubio also had ordered some new visa applications from Palestinian officials be denied.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Trump administration has taken to target Palestinians with visa restrictions and comes as the Israeli military declared Gaza’s largest city a combat zone. The State Department also suspended a program that had allowed injured Palestinian children from Gaza to come to the U.S. for medical treatment after a social media outcry by some conservatives.

The State Department didn’t specify how many visas had been revoked or how many applications had been denied. The department did not immediately respond to a request for more specifics.

It wasn’t immediately clear if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be affected.

The agency’s statement did say that representatives assigned to the Palestinian Authority mission at the United Nations would be granted waivers under the U.S. host country agreement with the U.N. so they can continue their New York-based operations.

“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” the statement said. “Before the PLO and PA can be considered partners for peace, they must consistently repudiate terrorism — including the October 7 massacre — and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by U.S. law and as promised by the PLO.”

The Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, told reporters Friday that he had just learned of Rubio’s decision and was assessing its impact.

“We will see exactly what it means and how it applies to any of our delegation, and we will respond accordingly,” he said.

Mansour said Abbas was leading the delegation to next month’s U.N. meetings and was expected to address the General Assembly — as he has done for many years. He also was expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on Sept. 22 about a two-state solution, which calls for Israel living side by side with an independent Palestine.

Lee writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

Mohammed Ibrahim, a 16-year-old Palestinian American, has been held in Israeli prison without contact with his family since being illegally detained in February. His relatives and rights groups are calling for his release, citing his worsening health and lack of due process.

United Nations official says Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing ‘hell in all shapes’ as Israel steps up its Gaza City assault.

Bones and skin are all that is left of seven-year-old Mai Abu Arar.

The Palestinian girl is one of tens of thousands of children facing malnutrition in Gaza as Israel’s man-made famine deepens with the Israeli military stepping up its assault on Gaza City.

Mai’s mother, Nadia Abu Arar, says her child was once lively and joyous, but she is now fighting for her life after drastically losing weight.

“The doctors told me that she isn’t suffering from any disease or from any past condition. They’re saying it’s all due to malnutrition and I haven’t seen any improvement in her situation at all,” Nadia told Al Jazeera.

Hunger has weakened Mai to the point that she can now only consume liquid food through a syringe.

Hisham Abu Al Oun, paediatric director at the Patient’s Friends Hospital in Gaza City, said Israel has been preventing the delivery of medicines to the enclave, which has made it challenging to treat patients suffering from malnutrition.

“Potassium chloride is the easiest medication that any doctor can prescribe. We don’t even have that. We have babies dying because we don’t have it. Sometimes supplies come in, but unfortunately, very little,” he said.

On Friday, a United Nations-backed hunger monitor, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), confirmed for the first time that more than half a million people are experiencing famine in northern Gaza.

At least 289 people, including 115 childre,n have died due to starvation in the enclave so far.

Israel has been imposing a suffocating blockade on Gaza, allowing only a small amount of food through airdrops and the United States-backed group GHF, forcing Palestinians to risk their lives to reach aid sites deep inside areas under control of the Israeli military.

On Sunday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN  Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), said Palestinians in Gaza are experiencing “hell in all shapes”.

“This will haunt us. Denial is the most obscene expression of dehumanisation,” Lazzarini said in a statement.

“It’s time for the Government of Israel to stop promoting a different narrative + to let humanitarian organisations provide assistance without restrictions & allow international journalists to report independently from Gaza.”

In its report, the IPC said Israel’s ongoing war has led to at least 1.9 million people being displaced twice as the Israeli siege resulted in a man-made famine.

Liz Allcock, a rights advocate with Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), told Al Jazeera that hunger is affecting everyone in Gaza.

“It plays out in the entirety of the [Gaza] Strip and on a daily basis. It’s not only children, small children … It is also elderly people who are unable to get access to any kind of food. It is also healthcare staff, aid workers who are fainting on the job because they don’t have enough sustenance to keep them going,” she said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly denied that people in Gaza are experiencing starvation, blaming aid agencies and Hamas for not delivering supplies to people in the territory.

The UN has said that despite the growing amounts of aid ready for delivery at crossings near Gaza, Israel has not granted aid agencies the necessary authorisation to deliver and distribute the assistance.

Aug. 23 (UPI) — Lawmakers in the Netherlands on Saturday rejected a motion that would recognize an independent Palestinian state and measures that would sanction Israel.

The punitive measure would have banned the importation of products made in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and banned the Dutch government from buying Israeli-made weapons, Politico reported.

A majority of ministers voted to ask the Israeli government to allow journalists into Gaza and to apply “maximum pressure” on nations that condone the actions of Hamas leaders.

The Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry has reported the deaths of about 61,000 Gazans after Hamas and other militants attacked and killed about 1,200 Israeli civilians and kidnapped another 250, about 50 of whom remain in captivity or have died inGaza.

The casualty figures reported by Hamas do not separate civilian deaths from Hamas deaths and have been challenged by Israel and others.

Saturday’s vote came a day after Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp on Friday night resigned to protest the government’s refusal to sanction Israel over conditions in Gaza.

The resignations occurred after the Rome-based Integrated Food Security Phase Classification on Friday declared a famine in Gaza.

Several members of the Netherlands’ New Social Contract Party likewise resigned on Friday — two months after the conservative Party for Freedom quit the Dutch government over differences arising from immigration concerns.

Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders demanded that the government greatly reduce the number of immigrants allowed to enter the Netherlands and resigned from the government, along with other party members, in early June.

Snapelections are scheduled on Oct. 29, and a caretaker government is in place until a new one is formed after the October election.

Huda Abu Naja lies weak and emaciated on a thin mattress in her family’s tent in a displacement camp in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah.

The 12-year-old Palestinian girl’s arms are painfully thin, and the bones on her torso are protruding from under her skin, a telltale sign of her acute malnutrition.

“My daughter has been suffering from acute malnutrition since March when Israel closed Gaza’s borders,” Huda’s mother, Somia Abu Naja, tells Al Jazeera, stroking her daughter’s face.

“She spent three months in hospitals, but her condition did not improve,” said Somia, explaining that she decided to bring Huda back to the family’s tent after witnessing five children die of starvation at Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis.

“She used to weigh 35 kilos [77lbs], but now she’s down to 20 [44lbs],” Somia added.

Huda is just one of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children suffering from malnutrition in Gaza, according to local health authorities, as Israel continues to block food and other humanitarian aid from entering the bombarded enclave.

On Friday, a United Nations-backed hunger monitor confirmed for the first time that more than half a million people were experiencing famine in northern Gaza – the first such designation ever recorded in the Middle East.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system warned that the figure could reach 614,000 as famine is expected to spread to the Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis governorates by the end of September.

According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, more than 280 people, including more than 110 children, have died due to Israel-induced starvation since the country’s war on Gaza began nearly two years ago.

Children are being hit hard by the crisis, the IPC said on Friday, with an estimated 132,000 children under the age of five projected to be at risk of death from acute malnutrition by June 2026.

Dr Ahmad al-Farra, the chief paediatric physician at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, said 120 children are seeking treatment for malnutrition at the facility, while tens of thousands more are suffering in displacement camps with little assistance.

He told Al Jazeera that children in Gaza will suffer the consequences of malnutrition for the rest of their lives, as hospitals in the enclave are lacking the resources and supplies to respond to the crisis.

Mohammed Abu Salmiya, the director of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital, also told Al Jazeera that an estimated 320,000 children across Gaza were in a state of severe malnutrition.

He said all wounded patients in hospitals were suffering from malnutrition, as well, amid Israel’s continued blockade of the enclave.

Israel has rejected the IPC’s findings, with its foreign ministry saying – despite mounds of evidence – that there was “no famine in Gaza”.

While Israel has allowed limited supplies into the territory in recent weeks amid global outrage over the starvation crisis, the UN and humanitarian groups say what is being allowed in remains woefully insufficient.

An Israeli-backed aid distribution scheme known as GHF has also been condemned as ineffective and deadly, with Israeli forces and US contractors killing more than 2,000 Palestinians as they sought food at the sites since late May.

The IPC famine classification has triggered a renewed wave of calls for Israel to urgently allow a massive and sustained influx of aid into Gaza.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that the famine was a “man-made disaster, a moral indictment, and a failure of humanity itself”.

UN aid chief Tom Fletcher also said starvation was occurring “within a few hundred metres of food” as aid trucks were stuck at border crossings due to Israeli restrictions. He demanded that Israel allow food and medicine in “at the massive scale required”.

Israeli destruction in al-Mughayyir near Ramallah is part of push to forcibly displace Palestinians, researcher says.

The Israeli military has destroyed about 3,000 olive trees in a village near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, the head of the local council says, as Palestinians face a continued wave of violence across the territory in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Israeli military issued an order on Saturday to uproot olive trees in a 0.27sq-km (0.1sq-mile) area in al-Mughayyir, a village of about 4,000 residents northeast of Ramallah.

The army justified the measure by saying the trees posed a “security threat” to a main Israeli settlement road that runs through the village’s lands.

The destruction was carried out as al-Mughayyir has been under lockdown since Thursday after an Israeli settler said he was shot at in the area.

The deputy head of the village council, Marzouq Abu Naim, told Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli soldiers had stormed more than 30 homes since dawn on Saturday, destroying residents’ property and vehicles.

For decades, the Israeli military has uprooted olive trees – an important Palestinian cultural symbol – across the occupied Palestinian territory as part of the country’s efforts to seize Palestinian land and forcibly displace residents.

The West Bank also has seen a surge in Israeli military and settler violence since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, and tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced out of their homes.

More than 2,370 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have been reported across the area from January 2024 to the end of July this year, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The highest number of attacks – 585 – was recorded in the Ramallah area, followed by 479 in the Nablus region in the northern West Bank.

At least 671 Palestinians, including 129 children, also have been killed by Israeli forces and Israeli settlers across the West Bank in that same time period, OCHA said.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment on Saturday on the uprooting of the olive trees in al-Mughayyir.

Hamza Zubeidat, a Palestinian researcher, said the destruction is part of Israel’s “continuous” effort to force Palestinians off their lands.

“We have to be clear that since 1967, Israel is still implementing the same plan of evicting the Palestinian population from the countryside and the cities of the West Bank. What’s going on right now is just a continuous process of this eviction of Palestinians. It’s not a new Israeli process,” Zubeidat told Al Jazeera.

He noted that al-Mughayyir has a long agricultural history and, like other villages in the West Bank, relies almost entirely on agriculture and livestock as its main source of income.

“This area where more than 3,000 olive trees [were] uprooted is one of the most fertile areas in this part of the Ramallah area,” Zubeidat explained.

“Uprooting trees, confiscated water springs, blocking and preventing Palestinians from accessing their farms and water sources means more food and water insecurity.”

PM’s office says the weapons transfer to the Lebanese army marks the start of a wider disarmament campaign.

Lebanon has launched a plan to disarm Palestinian groups in its refugee camps, beginning with the handover of weapons from Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut.

The prime minister’s office announced on Thursday that the weapons transfer to the Lebanese army marks the start of a wider disarmament campaign. More handovers are expected in the coming weeks across Burj al-Barajneh and other camps nationwide.

A Fatah official told the Reuters news agency the arms handed over so far were only illegal weapons that had entered the camp within the previous day. Television footage showed military vehicles inside the camp, though Reuters could not verify what type of weapons were being surrendered.

The initiative follows Lebanon’s commitment under a US-backed truce between Israel and Hezbollah in November, which restricted weapons to six state security forces. Since the November 27, 2024, ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued attacking Lebanon, often on a weekly basis.

The government has tasked the army with producing a strategy by the end of the year to consolidate all arms under state authority.

According to the prime minister’s office, the decision to disarm Palestinian factions was reached in a May meeting between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Both leaders affirmed Lebanon’s sovereignty and insisted that only the state should hold arms. Lebanese and Palestinian officials later agreed on a timeline and mechanism for the handovers.

For decades, Palestinian groups have maintained control inside Lebanon’s 12 refugee camps, which largely operate outside state jurisdiction. The latest initiative is seen as the most serious effort in years to curb the presence of weapons inside the camps.

Palestinian resistance movements grew out of displacement and political exclusion after the creation of Israel in 1948, when some 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes.

Over the years, groups including Fatah, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) established a presence in Lebanon’s camps to continue armed struggle against Israel.

Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain without key civil rights, such as access to certain jobs and property ownership. With limited opportunities, many have turned to armed factions for protection or representation.

The disarmament push also comes as Hezbollah faces what analysts describe as its greatest military challenge in decades, following Israeli strikes in 2024 that decimated much of its leadership.

RAFAH, Egypt — Hamas said Monday it has accepted a new proposal from Arab mediators for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as Israel indicated its positions haven’t changed, while Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from 22 months of war has passed 62,000.

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to cast doubt on the long-running negotiations that Washington has mediated as well. “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” he posted on social media.

Israel announced plans to reoccupy Gaza City and other heavily populated areas after ceasefire talks appeared to break down last month, raising the possibility of a worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, which experts say is sliding into famine.

Plans to expand the offensive, in part aimed at pressuring Hamas, have sparked international outrage and infuriated many Israelis who fear for the remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. Hundreds of thousands took part in mass protests on Sunday calling for their return.

Egypt says Witkoff invited to join talks

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said mediators are “exerting extensive efforts” to revive a U.S. proposal for a 60-day ceasefire, during which some of the remaining 50 hostages would be released and the sides would negotiate a lasting ceasefire and the return of the rest.

Abdelatty told the Associated Press they are inviting U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff to join the ceasefire talks.

Abdelatty spoke to journalists during a visit to Egypt’s Rafah crossing with Gaza, which has not functioned since Israel seized the Palestinian side in May 2024. He was accompanied by Mohammad Mustafa, the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, which has been largely sidelined since the war began.

Abdelatty said Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani had joined the talks, which include senior Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya, who arrived in Cairo last week. Abdelatty said they are open to other ideas, including for a comprehensive deal that would release all the hostages at once.

Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official, told the AP that the militant group had accepted the proposal introduced by the mediators, without elaborating.

An Egyptian official, speaking to the AP on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks, said the proposal includes changes to Israel’s pullback of its forces and guarantees for negotiations on a lasting ceasefire during the initial truce. The official said it is almost identical to an earlier proposal accepted by Israel, which has not yet joined the latest talks.

Diaa Rashwan, head of the Egypt State Information Service, told the AP that Egypt and Qatar have sent the Hamas-accepted proposal to Israel.

An Israeli official said Israel’s positions, including on the release of all hostages, had not changed from previous rounds of talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak with the media.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue the war until all the hostages are returned and Hamas has been disarmed, and to maintain lasting security control over Gaza. Hamas has said it will only release the remaining hostages in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and an Israeli withdrawal.

Netanyahu said in a video addressing the Israeli public that reports of Hamas’ acceptance of the proposal showed that it is “under massive pressure.”

Palestinian death toll surpasses 62,000

Hamas-led militants abducted 251 people and killed around 1,200, mostly civilians, in the attack that ignited the war. Around 20 of the hostages still in Gaza are believed by Israel to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefires or other deals.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said the Palestinian death toll from the war had climbed to 62,004, with another 156,230 people wounded. It does not say how many were civilians or combatants, but says women and children make up around half the dead.

The ministry is part of the Hamas-run government and staffed by medical professionals. The U.N. and many independent experts consider its figures to be the most reliable estimate of wartime casualties. Israel disputes its toll but has not provided its own.

The ministry said 1,965 people have been killed while seeking humanitarian aid since May, either in the chaos around U.N. convoys or while heading to sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, an Israeli-backed American contractor.

Witnesses, health officials and the U.N. human rights office say Israeli forces have repeatedly fired toward crowds seeking aid. Israel says it has only fired warning shots at people who approached its forces. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says its armed contractors have only used pepper spray or fired into the air on rare occasions to prevent deadly crowding.

More deaths linked to malnutrition

Experts have warned that Israel’s ongoing offensive is pushing Gaza toward famine, even after it eased a complete two-and-a-half-month blockade on the territory in May. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that five more people, including two children, died of malnutrition-related causes.

It says at least 112 children have died of malnutrition-related causes since the war began, and 151 adults have died since the ministry started tracking adult malnutrition deaths in June.

Amnesty International on Monday accused Israel of “carrying out a deliberate campaign of starvation.”

Israel has rejected such allegations, saying it allows in enough food and accusing the U.N. of failing to promptly deliver it. U.N. agencies say they are hindered by Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in the territory, around three-quarters of which is now controlled by Israel.

Eastwood, Magdy and Lidman write for the Associated Press. Magdy reported from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv. AP writer Rod McGuirk contributed from Canberra, Australia.

Exclusive footage newly obtained by Al Jazeera captures the harrowing moment an Israeli drone-fired missile killed a Palestinian girl carrying water in Jabalia, northern Gaza, in December 2024. Two men are later seen retrieving her body.

Aug. 14 (UPI) — Israel announced plans Thursday to revive a shelved a 3,400-home development in the West Bank that would seal it off from East Jerusalem and partition the occupied territory, effectively sinking the possiblilty of a Palestinian state.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right cabinet member who is under international sanctions and investigation by the International Criminal Court over the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements, said the so-called E1 project would “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.”

The proposed development between East Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, another Israeli settlement, has been on ice for more than a decade due to the international community’s opposition to the settlements, which are illegal under international law, and in particular E1 because of the risk to efforts to find a solution to the Palestinian question.

“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem. This is Zionism at its best — building, settling and strengthening our sovereignty in the Land of Israel,” Smotrich said.

Speaking at a news conference with settler leaders, Smotrich said the land in question was the rightful property of the Jewish people because it had been given to them by God.

The announcement came three days after Australia joined France, Canada, Britain, Portugal and Malta in pledging to recognize Palestinian statehood in September with Smotrich telling the BBC the nation they backed would never happen “because there is nothing to recognize and no one to recognize.”

Smotrich’s move drew on an identical playbook he and Defense Minister Israel Katz used in May when they signed off on 22 Jewish settlements, the most significant expansion of the Israeli presence in the occupied West Bank in decades.

The two ministers said the step granted the unofficial settlements with legal recognition from the government, with Katz saying it would “prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel.”

The May 29 move came hours after the governments of Ireland, Norway, Slovenia and Spain issued a joint communique reaffirming their commitment to the implementation of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

Israel’s far-right finance minister has approved plans for thousands of illegal homes in the occupied West Bank — saying it ‘buries the idea of a Palestinian state’. Bezalel Smotrich announced 3,401 illegal housing units will be built in the controversial E1 settlement project.

The far-right minister said he will approve 3,000 new homes in the controversial E1 area project, hailing it as ‘Zionism at its best’.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has announced he will approve thousands of housing units in a highly controversial and long-delayed illegal settlement project in the occupied West Bank, saying the move “buries the idea of a Palestinian state”.

In a statement on Wednesday, Smotrich announced his intention to approve tenders to build more than 3,000 homes in the E1 area settlement project that would connect Jerusalem and the existing Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, located several kilometres to the east.

“Approval of construction plans in E1 buries the idea of a Palestinian state and continues the many steps we are taking on the ground as part of the de facto sovereignty plan that we began implementing with the establishment of the government,” he said.

Smotrich, who is also a minister in Israel’s Ministry of Defence with broad responsibility for approving settlements in the occupied West Bank, hailed the project as “Zionism at its best”.

“After decades of international pressure and freezes, we are breaking conventions and connecting Maale Adumim to Jerusalem,” Smotrich added.

Israel Gantz, chairman of the Yesha Council – an umbrella organisation of illegal settlements in the West Bank – and head of the Binyamin Regional Council, also praised the “tremendous and historic achievement for the settlement movement”, according to Israel National News.

Gantz said it was a “true revolution in strengthening the settlement enterprise”, the outlet said.

Development of the E1 settlement – which is illegal under international law – has been frozen for decades.

Observers believe that its location will hinder the realisation of a future Palestinian state.

The planned settlement would effectively divide the occupied West Bank into northern and southern regions, preventing the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian territory connecting occupied East Jerusalem to major cities such as Bethlehem and Ramallah.

Israel postponed the plan in 2022 following US pressure. But in recent months, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has approved road-widening projects in the area and begun restricting Palestinian access.

Maale Adumim mayor Guy Yifrach praised the new settlement, saying it will “connect Maale Adumim to Jerusalem and serve as a Zionist response of settlement and nation-building”.

“The Palestinians aimed to establish a stranglehold through illegal construction – this project will thwart that effort,” he said, according to Israel National News.

On Wednesday, Israeli anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now said a total of 4,030 new housing units had been approved in the occupied West Bank.

Some 730 are west of the existing Israeli settlement of Ariel, while 3,300 had been approved in a new Maale Adumim neighbourhood that will connect it “with the industrial zone to its east”.

“The 3,300 housing units in Maale Adumim represent an increase of about 33 percent in the settlement’s housing stock – an enormous expansion for a settlement whose population has been stagnant at around 38,000 for the past decade,” it said.

It added that the Maale Adumim extension raised “serious questions about the need for the E1 plan”.

‘Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians’ banners shown at match after criticism over tribute to Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid who was killed by Israel.

UEFA has unfurled a banner with the message “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” on the pitch before the Super Cup football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham in Udine, Italy, in the wake of heavy fallout over its meek tribute to a Palestinian player killed by Israel.

“The message is loud and clear,” European football’s governing body said in a post on X om Wednesday.  “A banner. A call.”

Nine children refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq carried the banner onto the field of play before the game began.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah last week criticised a UEFA tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his killing.

The Palestine Football Association said al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a brief post on X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.

Salah responded, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”

Speaking to Al Jazeera last week, Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, said he did not expect the football body to respond to the criticism.

“UEFA have not issued a follow-up, and frankly, I’d be surprised if they do,” he said, citing the “complete silence” of football and players’ bodies since the start of the war on Gaza.

Even UEFA’s tribute to al-Obeid “was a bit of a surprise”, Mikdadi said.

“Suleiman al-Obeid is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide – there’s been over 400 – but he’s by far the most prominent as of now.”

Salah, one of the Premier League’s biggest stars, has advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.

But some responding to Salah’s post asked why it had taken the 33-year-old Egyptian so long to weigh in on Israel’s genocidal war.

The banner move came a day after the UEFA Foundation for Children announced its latest initiative to help children affected by war in different parts of the world – a partnership with Medecins du Monde, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF), and Handicap International.

They are charities “providing vital humanitarian help for the children of Gaza,” UEFA said in a news release on Tuesday.

UEFA has supported projects regarding children affected in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.

‘Stop killing children, Stop killing civilians’ banners shown at match after criticism over tribute to Palestinian footballer Suleiman al-Obeid who was killed by Israel.

UEFA has unfurled a banner with the message “Stop Killing Children. Stop Killing Civilians” on the pitch before the Super Cup football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham in Udine, Italy, in the wake of heavy fallout over its meek tribute to a Palestinian player killed by Israel.

“The message is loud and clear,” European football’s governing body said in a post on X om Wednesday.  “A banner. A call.”

Nine children refugees from Palestine, Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Iraq carried the banner onto the field of play before the game began.

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah last week criticised a UEFA tribute to the late Suleiman al-Obeid, known as the “Palestinian Pele”, after European football’s governing body failed to reference the circumstances surrounding his killing.

The Palestine Football Association said al-Obeid, 41, was killed by an Israeli attack on civilians waiting for humanitarian aid in the southern Gaza Strip.

In a brief post on X, UEFA called the former national team member “a talent who gave hope to countless children, even in the darkest of times”.

Salah responded, “Can you tell us how he died, where, and why?”

Speaking to Al Jazeera last week, Bassil Mikdadi, the founder of Football Palestine, said he did not expect the football body to respond to the criticism.

“UEFA have not issued a follow-up, and frankly, I’d be surprised if they do,” he said, citing the “complete silence” of football and players’ bodies since the start of the war on Gaza.

Even UEFA’s tribute to al-Obeid “was a bit of a surprise”, Mikdadi said.

“Suleiman al-Obeid is not the first Palestinian footballer to perish in this genocide – there’s been over 400 – but he’s by far the most prominent as of now.”

Salah, one of the Premier League’s biggest stars, has advocated for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza during the nearly two-year-long war.

But some responding to Salah’s post asked why it had taken the 33-year-old Egyptian so long to weigh in on Israel’s genocidal war.

The banner move came a day after the UEFA Foundation for Children announced its latest initiative to help children affected by war in different parts of the world – a partnership with Medecins du Monde, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF), and Handicap International.

They are charities “providing vital humanitarian help for the children of Gaza,” UEFA said in a news release on Tuesday.

UEFA has supported projects regarding children affected in conflict zones in Afghanistan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine.

A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank has been shot dead by an Israeli settler during a land-leveling operation in the village Duma. Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim explains how the killing of 35-year-old Thamin Dawabsheh is part of a growing pattern.

The occupied West Bank town’s mayor says Thamin Khalil Reda Dawabsheh killed as Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians.

A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank has been shot dead in an attack instigated by Israeli settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry as cited by the Wafa news agency.

Thamin Khalil Reda Dawabsheh, 35, was shot Wednesday morning in the town of Duma, south of Nablus, by an Israeli off-duty soldier who was accompanying “an Israeli civilian” near Duma “during engineering works”, the Israeli army said.

Earlier Palestinian reports of the attack had stated that Dawabsheh was killed by an Israeli settler.

35-year-old Thameen Khalil Reda Dawabsheh succumbed to his wounds after being shot by colonists during an attack on the village. pic.twitter.com/cHfdUg4Unl

— WAFA News Agency – English (@WAFANewsEnglish) August 13, 2025

According to the mayor of Duma, Palestinians in the town were “startled” by an Israeli settler attack, said Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim.

“The settlers started assaulting a 14-year-old, leading many Palestinian men to go and try to defend him,” Ibrahim said.

Later, more armed settlers arrived, and they started shooting at the Palestinians, resulting in the death of Dawabsheh, “whose only crime was being on his land”, she added.

Suleiman Dawabsheh, the head of the Duma village council, said that settlers attacked Palestinians and opened fire on them in the southern part of the village, amid land-levelling operations that have been taking place in the area for days, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Ibrahim said that Thamin Dawabsheh’s killing is part of a pattern of increased Israeli settler violence against Palestinians that is often filmed on camera.

“Every day, we stumble upon more videos showing how Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians – intimidating them, shooting them, killing them. And they are not being held accountable by the Israeli authorities,” said Ibrahim.

The statement published by the Israeli army claimed dozens of Palestinians were hurling rocks towards the Israeli civilian and soldier, and “in response, the soldier fired to remove the threat, and a hit was identified”.

A deadly pattern of Israeli military, settler attacks

Recently, 31-year-old Palestinian activist and English teacher Awdah Hathaleen was shot dead by an Israeli settler on July 28 in the village of Umm al-Kheir, south of Hebron.

Hathaleen was well known for his activism, including helping the creators of the Oscar-winning film No Other Land, which documents Israeli settler and soldier attacks on the Palestinian community of Masafer Yatta.

Israeli settlers, protected by the Israeli military, are often armed and fire at will against Palestinians who try to stop them. They attack residents and burn property with impunity, rarely if ever facing legal consequences.

The Israeli military has also been intensifying its deadly raids, home demolitions and displacement campaigns in the West Bank.

Violent attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers in the occupied West Bank have surged since October 2023, in tandem with Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, with the United Nations reporting that almost 650 Palestinians – including 121 children – have been killed in the territory by Israeli forces and settlers between January 1, 2024 and the start of July 2025.

A further 5,269 Palestinians were injured during that period, including 1,029 children.

Australia will recognise a Palestinian state in September, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced.

Albanese said on Monday that his government would formally announce the move when the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) meets in New York.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said at a news conference in Canberra.

Australia’s announcement comes as Canada, France and the United Kingdom are preparing to formally recognise Palestine at the meeting next month, joining the vast majority of UN member states.

It also comes about a week after hundreds of thousands of Australians marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge to protest Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking a day after the protest, Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that “there is a risk there will be no Palestine left to recognise.”

“In relation to recognition, I’ve said for over a year now, it’s a matter of when, not if,” Wong added.

The opposition Liberal Party criticised the move, saying it put Australia at odds with the United States, its closest ally, and reversed a bipartisan consensus that there should be no recognition while Hamas remains in control of Gaza.

“Despite his words today, the reality is Anthony Albanese has committed Australia to recognising Palestine while hostages remain in tunnels under Gaza and with Hamas still in control of the population of Gaza. Nothing he has said today changes that fact,” Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley said in a statement.

“Recognising a Palestinian state prior to a return of the hostages and defeat of Hamas, as the Government has today, risks delivering Hamas one of its strategic objectives of the horrific terrorism of October 7.”

The Australian Greens, the fourth-largest party in parliament, welcomed the move to recognise Palestine, but said the announcement did not meet the “overwhelming calls from the Australian public for the government to take material action”.

“Millions of Australians have taken to the streets, including 300,000 last weekend in Sydney alone, calling for sanctions and an end to the arms trade with Israel. The Albanese Government is still ignoring this call,” Senator David Shoebridge, the party’s spokesperson on foreign affairs, said in a statement.

The Australian Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) also criticised the announcement, describing it as a “political fig leaf, letting Israel’s genocide and apartheid continue unchallenged, and distracting from Australia’s complicity in Israeli war crimes via ongoing weapons and components trade”.

“Palestinian rights are not a gift to be granted by Western states. They are not dependent on negotiation with, or the behaviour or approval of their colonial oppressors,” APAN said in a statement.

According to Albanese, Australia’s decision to recognise Palestinians’ right to their own state will be “predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority (PA)”.

These “detailed and significant commitments” include the PA reaffirming it “recognises Israel’s right to exist in peace and security” and committing to “demilitarise and to hold general elections”, Albanese said while announcing the decision.

The PA is a governing body that has overseen parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank since the mid-90s.

It has not held parliamentary elections since 2006 and has been criticised by some Palestinians for helping Israel to keep tight control over residents in the West Bank.

Albanese said the commitments secured by Australia were “an opportunity to deliver self-determination for the people of Palestine in a way that isolates Hamas, disarms it and drives it out of the region once and for all”.

Hamas has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it fought a brief war against forces loyal to PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

New Zealand to decide on recognition next month

Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Monday that his country’s cabinet will make a formal decision on Palestinian statehood in September.

“Some of New Zealand’s close partners have opted to recognise a Palestinian state, and some have not,” Peters said in a statement.

“Ultimately, New Zealand has an independent foreign policy, and on this issue, we intend to weigh up the issue carefully and then act according to New Zealand’s principles, values and national interest.”

Peters said that while New Zealand has for some time considered the recognition of a Palestinian state a “matter of when, not if”, the issue is not “straightforward” or “clear-cut”.

“There are a broad range of strongly held views within our Government, Parliament and indeed New Zealand society over the question of recognition of a Palestinian state,” he said.

“It is only right that this complicated issue be approached calmly, cautiously and judiciously. Over the next month, we look forward to canvassing this broad range of views before taking a proposal to Cabinet.”

Of the UN’s 193 member states, 147 already recognise Palestinian statehood, representing some three-quarters of the world’s countries and the vast majority of its population.

Under its 1947 plan to partition Palestine, the UNGA said it would grant 45 percent of the land to an Arab state, though this never eventuated.

The announcements by Australia and New Zealand on Monday came hours after an Israeli attack killed five Al Jazeera staff members in Gaza City, and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continues to threaten a full-scale invasion of the city in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 61,430 people, according to Gaza’s health authorities.

Close to 200 people, including 96 children, have died from starvation under Israel’s punishing siege, according to health authorities.

Aug. 11 (UPI) — Australia will recognize the state of Palestine, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Monday, making Canberra the latest Western government to take the mostly symbolic and political move that is expected to anger not only Israel but the United States.

Albanese, speaking during a press conference in Canberra, said that Australia will formally make the recognition in September, during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Australia will recognize a state of Palestine. Australia will recognize the right of the Palestinian people to a state of their own, predicated on the commitments Australia has received from the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

“We will work with the international community to make this right a reality.”

Australia’s announcement comes just a few short weeks after France, then Britain, followed by Canada, made public their intentions to recognize a Palestinian state in September.

It also comes amid mounting criticism against Israel over its war in Gaza, where famine threatens. That criticism has only increased since late last week, when the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it will expand its military offensive in the Palestinian enclave with plans to seize control of the entire Gaza Strip.

Albanese said Australia was making the announcement following a cabinet meeting as part of a “coordinated global effort” behind a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu was among the world leaders to whom Albanese said he spoke about this decision.

Israel is expected to staunchly reject Australia’s decision, as it did when other nations moved to recognize a Palestinian state.

During a press conference Sunday for foreign journalists, Netanyahu lambasted Australia, European nations and others considering recognizing a Palestinian state.

“Most of the Jewish public is committed against the Palestinian state for the simple reason that they know it won’t bring peace,” he said. “To have European countries and Australia march into that rabbit hole, just like that, fall right into it, and buy this canard is disappointing, and I think it’s actually shameful, but it’s not going to change our position. Again, we will not commit national suicide.”

Netanyahu has staunchly opposed a two-state solution.

Albanese on Monday said it was “humanity’s best hope” to end the war in Gaza.

Australian Jewish organizations have come out against their government.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry in a statement called it “a betrayal and abandonment” of the Israelis who were taken hostage by Hamas on its surprise Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

The right-leaning Australian Jewish Association said it was “more than a betrayal of a friend” and “a reckless attack on the Jewish people in Australia and abroad.”

“This position puts Australia at odds with our closest ally, the United States, and signals weakness to those who seek our harm,” it said in a statement.

The decades-long conflict between Hamas and Israel exploded on Oct. 7, 2023, when the Iran-backed militia launched a bloody surprise attack on the Middle Eastern country.

In response, Israel has devastated Gaza with a massive military offensive that has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Israel’s military now controls about 75% of the enclave and late last week Netanyahu’s government announced an expanded military offensive to seize control of the remaining 25%.

The plan has attracted widespread international criticism. It also comes as famine threatens to take hold of Gaza, where health officials say more than 200 people, including 100 children, have died of starvation.

Netanyahu is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges of using starvation as a method of warfare.

As the war has dragged on, countries have turned to recognizing a Palestinian State as a form of protest.

In May 2024, Norway, Ireland, and Spain came out in support of a Palestinian State.

The United States, under President Donald Trump, a staunch Netanyahu ally, is expected to rebuke Australia, as it has other countries that moved to recognized a Palestinian state.

Australia has announced a plan to recognise a Palestinian state in September, following similar moves by the UK, France and Canada.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the move will happen at the UN General Assembly and after it received commitments from the Palestinian Authority.

“A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” he said on Monday.

Israel, which is under increasing pressure to end the war in Gaza, has said recognising a Palestinian state “rewards terrorism”.

The Palestinian Authority, which controls parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has earlier said recognition of statehood shows growing support for self-determination of its people.

Albanese said the decision was made after his government received commitments from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas would play no role in any future state.