US, UK, France, EU: Allies Isolate Netanyahu, What's Next For Bibi?
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Houthis Vow To Target All Ships Trading With Israel, Urge Nations To Cut Ties Over Gaza Blockade
Yemen's Houthi rebels have announced a new escalation, threatening to target any commercial vessels connected to Israeli ports regardless of their country of origin. This campaign, focused on the strategic Bab el Mandeb Strait, aims to show solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. The Houthis have already attacked over 100 ships, sunk multiple vessels, and launched missiles at Israel, prompting fierce retaliatory strikes. International shipping faces increasing peril, while diplomatic efforts seek to stave off further conflict and protect key global trade routes.#RedSeaCrisis #HouthiAttacks #GlobalShipping #IsraelGaza #MiddleEastNews #MaritimeSecurity #BreakingNews #Ceasefire Read More
Indian Express
3 hours ago
- Indian Express
Explained: The rift in Western world over Gaza, and its possible impact
With the humanitarian crisis in Gaza growing more alarming, Israel Sunday said it would halt military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and allow new aid corridors. Days before, Israel and the United States had withdrawn from ceasefire negotiations with Hamas, citing the Palestinian group's lack of 'good faith'. The following day, on Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country would declare its recognition of a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September, drawing criticism from both the US and Israel. On July 21, 25 countries including Italy, Canada, UK, Japan, France and the EU had asserted that 'the war in Gaza must end now'. In recent days, multiple Western leaders, including Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Canadian PM Mark Carney, and Australian PM Anthony Albanese have strongly criticised Israel's actions in Gaza. These developments represent a global rift — including in the West — when it comes to Israel and Palestine. It is yet to be seen what this will mean on the ground. Israel's war on Gaza Over the past month, Israel's approach to Gaza has turned more decisive. With the US withdrawing from the ceasefire negotiations, Israel appears to have a carte blanche both for its maximalist military objective of eliminating Hamas and its maximalist political objective of a permanent occupation of Gaza. A chorus of Israeli ministers, like Itamar Ben-Gvir, continue to call for Palestinians to 'leave' Gaza. Defence Minister Israel Katz has laid out Israel's immediate plans for the Strip. This includes building a 'humanitarian city' on the ruins of Rafah where 600,000 Palestinians would initially be 'moved' and 'not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries'. This plan, which will eventually include all of Gaza's population of roughly 2.1 million people, has been described as a potential concentration camp by several experts, including former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert. Israel's latest strategy of allegedly shooting unarmed Palestinians lining up for aid has triggered more pointed criticism from Western capitals outside the US. The July 21 joint statement stated that the 'Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity'. Aid into the besieged Palestinian enclave is currently being routed through the Israeli-American Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). There is growing evidence of starving Palestinians being slaughtered outside GHF centres; the UN reports that more than 1,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israel since the GHF began operations on May 27. This comes even as more than a hundred humanitarian aid organisations have warned that a 'mass famine' is spreading in Gaza. The World Food Program, an arm of the UN, said recently that the hunger crisis in Gaza had reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation, with a third of the population not eating for multiple days in a row.' Global positions on Palestine The French decision to recognise Palestinian statehood is representative of a growing rift in the global order vis-à-vis Israel and Palestine. * The US and Israel reject any push for a Palestinian state. The alliance of the two stakeholders with the greatest ability to affect changes on the ground has held firm even as global pressures on Israel increase. * Several Western states, such as Canada, UK, and Germany, however, are seemingly breaking from the US-Israel alliance. While they do back Israel's immediate objectives, they also remain committed to potentially implementing the two-state solution. Note, however, that these countries also retain their broader support for Israeli interests. Macron, for instance, called for a demilitarised Palestinian state — which would effectively deny Palestinians full sovereignty. * The Global South and Arab states seek an immediate end to Israel's current war in Gaza and an inclusive, negotiated two-state solution to the original dispute. However, most of these states have markedly limited abilities to actually shape events on the ground, and Arab states remain disinclined to undertake punitive economic or military measures against Israel. Status of two-state solution Broadly, despite the failure of the Oslo Accords of 1995, most states have stood by the two-state solution as the only achievable outcome — even as Israel progressively removes the physical contours of a future Palestinian state and has killed Palestinians at record rates each day since October 2023. A day before ceasefire talks broke down, the Israeli Knesset passed a non-binding resolution calling for Israel to annex the West Bank. Another Knesset resolution a year ago had rejected the possibility of allowing a sovereign Palestinian state. In June, Israel approved 22 new Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Most of Israel's West Bank settlements are deemed illegal by the UN and a majority of its member states, including India. That Israeli ministers also look to re-settle Homesh and Sa-Nur in the Northern West Bank, evacuated along with the settlements in Gaza in 2005, is indicative of Israel's concerted push to leverage the war to expand its illegal occupation of Palestinian territories. It is thus notable that France and Saudi Arabia are set to co-chair an international conference on the two-state solution at the UN from July 28. While a ministerial-level conference on the two-state solution was held at the UN in September 2024, Israel's war of attrition, combined with forced mass starvation, has sparked a renewed push to explore methods to advance the solution. However, unlike earlier global pushes for a Palestinian state alongside Israel according to pre-1967 borders, the current international effort arguably occurs with the US and Israel being the least amenable. Even as questions over the reform of the Palestinian Authority (restricted to the West Bank since 2007) can be addressed, the question of Hamas' future remains a dead-end. The upcoming international conference will bolster support for Palestinian statehood (recognised by 147 of the UN's 193 member states) but the degree to which participating states can influence Israeli actions remains unclear. It remains to be seen if the conference propels states to undertake punitive measures of any nature and scale against Israel, failing which Tel Aviv has little incentive to cease hostilities and territorial expansion, especially with continuing US support. Bashir Ali Abbas is a Senior Research Associate at the Council for Strategic and Defense Research, New Delhi
Hindustan Times
3 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Israel announces daily pauses in Gaza fighting as aid airdrops begin
Israel on Sunday announced a halt in military operations for 10 hours a day in parts of Gaza and new aid corridors as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates airdropped supplies into the enclave, where images of starving Palestinians have alarmed the world. A military transport aircraft drops humanitarian aid over the northern Gaza Strip, on July 27, 2025.(AFP) Israel has been facing growing international criticism, which the government rejects, over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, and indirect ceasefire talks in Doha between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas have broken off with no deal in sight. US President Donald Trump, on a visit to Scotland, said Israel would have to make a decision on its next steps in Gaza, and said he did not know what would happen after the collapse of ceasefire and hostage-release negotiations with Hamas. Military activity will stop daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (0700-1700 GMT) until further notice in Al-Mawasi, a designated humanitarian area along the coast, in central Deir al-Balah and in Gaza City, to the north. The military said designated secure routes for convoys delivering food and medicine will also be in place between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. starting from Sunday. The United Nations food aid agency needs quick approvals by Israel for its trucks to move into Gaza if it is to take advantage of Israel's planned humanitarian pauses in fighting, a senior World Food Programme official said on Sunday. United Nations aid chief Tom Fletcher said on Sunday that some movement restrictions appeared to have been eased by Israel in Gaza on Sunday after Israel decided to 'support a one-week scale-up of aid.' Initial reports indicate that more than 100 truckloads of aid were collected from crossings to be transported into Gaza, Fletcher said in a statement. 'This is progress, but vast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis,' he said. In their first airdrop in months, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates parachuted 25 tons of aid into Gaza on Sunday, a Jordanian official said, but added that it was not a substitute for delivery by land. Palestinian health officials in Gaza City said at least 10 people were injured by falling aid boxes. Work on a UAE project to run a new pipeline that will supply water from a desalination facility in neighbouring Egypt to around 600,000 Gazans along the coast would also begin in a few days, the Israeli military said. Dozens of Gazans have died of malnutrition in recent weeks, according to the Gaza Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave. The ministry reported six new deaths over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition, bringing the total deaths from malnutrition and hunger since the war began in 2023 to 133, including 87 children. On Saturday, a 5-month-old baby, Zainab Abu Haleeb, died of malnutrition at Nasser Hospital, health workers said. "Three months inside the hospital and this is what I get in return, that she is dead," said her mother, Israa Abu Haleeb, as the baby's father held their daughter's body wrapped in a white shroud. The Egyptian Red Crescent said it was sending more than 100 trucks carrying over 1,200 metric tons of food to southern Gaza on Sunday. Some had been looted in the area of Khan Younis after entering Gaza, residents said. Aid groups said last week there was mass hunger among Gaza's 2.2 million people, and international alarm over the humanitarian situation has increased. A group of 25 states including Britain, France and Canada last week said Israel's denial of aid was unacceptable. The military's spokesperson said Israel was committed to international law and monitors the humanitarian situation daily. Brigadier General Effie Defrin said there was no starvation in Gaza, but appeared to acknowledge conditions were critical. "When we start approaching a problematic line (threshold) then the IDF works to let in humanitarian aid," he said. "That's what happened over the weekend." Israel cut off aid to Gaza from the start of March to pressure Hamas into giving up dozens of hostages it still holds, and reopened aid with new restrictions in May. Israel says it has been allowing in aid but must prevent it from being diverted by militants and blames Hamas for the suffering of Gaza's people. Hope, Uncertainty Many Gazans expressed some relief at Sunday's announcement, but said fighting must end. "People are happy that large amounts of food aid will come into Gaza," said Tamer Al-Burai, a business owner. "We hope today marks a first step in ending this war that burned everything up." Health officials at Al-Awda and Al-Aqsa Hospitals in central Gaza said Israeli firing killed at least 17 people waiting for aid trucks. Israel's military said it fired warning shots at suspects endangering troops and was unaware of any casualties. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would continue to allow the entry of humanitarian supplies whether it is fighting or negotiating a ceasefire and vowed to press on with the campaign until "complete victory". Hamas said Israel was continuing its military offensive. "What is happening isn't a humanitarian truce," said Hamas official Ali Baraka. The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led fighters stormed southern Israel, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, Israel's offensive has killed nearly 60,000 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to Gaza health officials, reduced much of the enclave to ruins and displaced nearly the entire population.
