'Trump is eager to forge peace in the Middle East,' Palestinian FM says
The top Palestinian diplomat emphasised that "the two-state solution remains the most viable solution" despite the Israeli Knesset 's overwhelming vote against it. She argued that other alternatives – a one-state solution, maintaining the status quo or an " apartheid state" – are much less viable.
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Euronews
36 minutes ago
- Euronews
Meta ran ads to fundraise for Israeli Defence Forces, analysis shows
Ads run on Meta to fundraise for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) bypassed EU legislation, according to a new analysis. Global advocacy group Ekō said it identified at least 117 ads run on Meta platforms by two parallel funding groups from March 2025 to June 2025 that explicitly raised money for Israeli military units. Ekō claims both groups targeted users in the United Kingdom and the European Union, raising roughly $2.4 million (€2.05 million) for the IDF from ads on their landing pages. Euronews Next is working to independently verify this number. A previous Ekō analysis into Meta IDF fundraising found similar ads last year. The platform removed the ads when they were reported but 'did nothing to stop the same publishers from launching new campaigns for the same military equipment,' the rights group said in a statement. 'Meta's actions reveal a clear pattern: its advertising platform is not just failing to block these fundraising efforts — it is actively enabling them,' Ekō said in a statement sent to Euronews Next. What did the ads say? One of the ads run by US-registered charity Vaad Hatzedaka used the story of a rabbi to solicit donations for thermal drones that could 'detect and eliminate deadly threats from Hamas,' to keep their fighters 'one step ahead'. The donation page includes information to donate generators, underwater drones, or thermal drones to the Israeli soldiers. Another ad campaign reported by Ekō shows a repost by an Israeli singer where unit snipers in Jabalia, northern Gaza, are asking for shooting tripods. The embedded link redirects users to the Chesed Fund, a US-registered charity that lets users send bulletproof vests, thermal drones or tactical helmets to the IDF on the frontlines. Ekō said the ad was flagged to Meta, who eventually took it down. The Chelsed Fund ad violated Meta's ad policy about social issues, elections or politics, the advocacy group said. Anyone who wants to post ads in the EU about political values and government or security and foreign affairs has to go through an 'authorisation process' before being published on Meta platforms, according to the tech company's guidelines. The authorisation process requires ad posters to send in a piece of government-issued ID along with the page they run to Meta for review. The ads also have to have a 'paid by' disclaimer to show who is funding it. Anyone who violates Meta's ad policies several times by running these ads without authorisation could face 'permanent restrictions,' the company said, but it doesn't expand on what these might be. Euronews Next reached out to Meta but did not receive an immediate reply at the time of publication. How did these ads get past European laws? The European Commission's Digital Services Act (DSA) requires large online platforms with a reach of more than 45 million EU citizens a month to maintain a public ad repository and assess how their systems are manipulated or could contribute to societal risks. Meta has a monthly user base of roughly 259 million in the EU, according to Commission estimates. Platforms with these large user bases, such as Meta, have to disclose more information about ads they are seeing online, including why a user could be targeted by a specific campaign over others. Maen Hammad, a researcher at Ekō, argues that the DSA also comes with obligations for Meta to 'swiftly remove illegal content,' especially if it could break national charity laws. 'Ads fundraising for military gear, including drones allegedly used by a military under investigation for genocide to enforce a 'kill zone' in Gaza, likely break charity laws in several EU countries,' he said. Hammad said Eko will be bringing these findings to the European Commission to see whether it breaches the act. If the Commission decides to go ahead with an investigation, it could first request more information from Meta about its ad policies, conduct interviews with the company or inspect the company premises. Penalties for a DSA infringement could go up to six per cent of a company's global turnover. Euronews Next reached out to the Commission to see whether it had received the Ekō report or a request for an investigation but did not receive an immediate reply.
LeMonde
3 hours ago
- LeMonde
'The best show in town': From a hilltop in Israel, observers have a sinister view of Gaza bombings
Between two bombardments, Liram, Afik, and Emmanuel passed around a joint. On Thursday, July 17, at 6:30 pm, as on most evenings, the three friends, 27-year-old Israelis who preferred not to share their last names, met at the top of Kobi Hill, the highest point overlooking the city of Sderot on the edge of the Gaza Strip, to talk about work, travel, and "stock market investments," they listed. Right across from them, about one kilometer away, past the highway, a few fields, and a separation barrier, lay Beit Hanoun and the north of the Gaza Strip, which has been bombarded without pause for nearly two years. "When I see and hear a missile fall on Gaza, I am happy," Afik said, grinning in his shorts and brightly colored T-shirt, his pack of cigarettes and phone in front of him. On his device screen, the watch shop manager showed a photo of Avi Megira, his uncle, killed on his motorcycle in the streets of Sderot by a Hamas member during the massacres of October 7. Facing his two friends, a trader and an employee at the large printing plant in Kibbutz Be'eri, adjacent to the Gaza Strip, the young man, "frightened" by the proximity of the border with the Palestinian enclave, said he believed that freeing the last 50 Israeli hostages, of whom only about 20 are thought to be alive, could only happen through a violent military operation. Even if "millions" of Palestinians must die, he added. According to the latest figures shared by NGOs and international organizations on the ground, more than 58,000 people, the majority of them civilians, have already been killed by the Israeli army since October 7.
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
More than 100 NGOs warn 'mass starvation' spreading across Gaza
Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than two million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas's attack on Israel. The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May -- effectively sidelining the existing UN-led system. A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that "our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away". The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms. It came a day after the United States said its envoy Steve Witkoff will head to Europe this week for talks on Gaza and may then visit the Middle East. Witkoff comes with "a strong hope that we will come forward with another ceasefire as well as a humanitarian corridor for aid to flow, that both sides have in fact agreed to," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters. Even after Israel began easing a more than two-month aid blockade in late May, Gaza's population is still suffering extreme scarcities. Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid. 'Hope and heartbreak' In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods. "Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions," the signatories said. "It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage," they added. "The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access." UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday that the "horror" facing Palestinians in Gaza under Israeli military attack was unprecedented in recent years. The head of Gaza's largest hospital said Tuesday 21 children had died due to malnutrition and starvation in the Palestinian territory in the past three days. Standstill Israel and Hamas have been engaging in drawn-out negotiations in Doha since July 6 as mediators scramble to end nearly two years of war. But after more than two weeks of back and forth, efforts by mediators Qatar, Egypt and the United States are at a standstill. More than two dozen Western countries recently urged an immediate end to the war, saying suffering in Gaza had "reached new depths". Israel's military campaign in Gaza has killed 59,106 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory. Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which sparked the war, resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
